Video Tribute: Remembering 'The Day The Music Died'

February 3rd, immortalized in Don McLean's 1972 Billboard topper American Pie as "The Day the Music Died," refers to cultural despondency over the tragic loss of 22-year-old Buddy Holly, Pacoima's 17-year-old Ritchie Valens, and 28-year-old J. P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson who died in an icy, Iowa plane crash on this day in 1959. San Fernando valley born Valens -- a pioneer in the Spanish-speaking, Chicano/Latin rock movement -- scored several hits in his incomprehensibly short, 8-month recording career including the rock adaptation of a Mexican folk song, "La Bamba."