A Joke That Haunted a Lifetime: Waylon Jennings and ‘The Day the Music D**d’ On February 3, 1959, a dark winter night in Iowa became one of the most tragic moments in music history. A small plane carrying three rising stars of rock and roll—Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J.P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson—crashed into a frozen cornfield near Clear...