The night of February 3, 1959, the headliners of the "Winter Dance Party Tour" - Buddy Holly, the "Big Bopper" (J.P. Richardson), and new Latino star Ritchie Valens - boarded a small chartered aircraft. The tour was going poorly, with subzero weather, heavy snow, a string of dates in small-town dance halls far apart, and travel on a rickety, badly heated bus that carried all the tour's stars and backup players, as well as the equipment.

Audience reception was enthusiastic wherever the tour appeared, but the performers were enduring frostbite and exhaustion. That night Buddy Holly hired a plane to try to get a head start on a good night's sleep. Little did anyone know that this flight would become one of the key dates in rock history - the "day the music died," as Don McLean sang in "American Pie.".

The deaths of Holly, Richardson, and Valens have spurred controversy among fans and historians alike, with conflicting theories about what happened in the days - and hours - before, during, and after the crash. Now, drawing on more than twenty years of interviews with fans, the surviving musicians, and the promoters and radio personalities who organized the tour, Larry Lehmer recreates the final days of these rock legends, and unearths startling new information about the crash and its aftermath.

From the fans, he gathers snapshots showing the stars in informal settings, from performing onstage to partying with their friends. Posters, newspaper articles, radio interviews, and other firsthand accounts are reproduced to give the flavor of the time and important new facts about the tour.