I was listening to music recently and during that session realized that a couple of the singers I had just heard had both died in terrible plane crashes. It got me thinking how many musicians and singer-songwriters have perished in that way.
Patsy Cline was one of the earliest female country music singers who made it big in the industry. She was born in Virginia and had several hit songs in her career.
She had huge hits like “After Midnight,” “I Fall to Pieces,” and many more.
Cline’s flight from Arkansas, after a benefit concert, crashed in severe weather on the evening of March 5, 1963. Her recovered wristwatch had stopped at 6:20 p.m. The plane was found some 90 miles from its Nashville destination in a forest outside of Camden, Tennessee. Forensic examination concluded that everyone aboard had been killed instantly. “Cowboy” Copas, another country music performer, was also on the flight.
Jim Croce was an American folk and rock singer-songwriter. Between 1966 and 1973, he released five studio albums and numerous top 10 singles.
On the evening of Sept. 20, 1973, during Croce’s Life and Times tour, which had been scheduled for 45 dates, and the day before his single “I Got a Name” was released, Croce and five others were killed when their chartered Beechcraft plane crashed shortly after takeoff from the Natchitoches Regional Airport in Natchitoches, Louisiana.
John Denver was a folk singer, songwriter and actor. He was one of the most popular acoustic artists of the 1970s and one of the bestselling artists of that decade.
Denver’s “Take Me Home Country Roads” is still a stadium sports anthem played all over the world. But it is best known as the song for the WVU Mountaineers, played in the football stadium or basketball coliseum after a win. He had many other hits like “Sunshine on My Shoulder,” “Rocky Mountain High,” and many others.
Denver died on the afternoon of Oct. 12, 1997, when his light homebuilt aircraft crashed into Monterey Bay near Pacific Grove, California, while making a series of touch-and-go landings at a nearby airport.
Buddy Holly was an American singer, songwriter, and musician who was a pioneering figure of rock and roll. He was born to a musical family in Lubbock, Texas, during the Great Depression and learned to play guitar. He was an early rock ‘n’ roll sensation in the 1950s. A couple of his big hits were “That’ll be the Day” and “Peggy Sue.”
On Feb. 2, 1959, before their appearance in Clear Lake, Iowa, Holly chartered a four-seat Beechcraft from Mason City, Iowa. Holly’s idea was to depart following the show at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake and fly to their next venue, in Moorhead, Minnesota, via Fargo, North Dakota, allowing them time to rest and launder their clothes. Immediately after the Clear Lake show (which ended just before midnight), Band member Tommy Allsup agreed to flip a coin for the seat with singer Ritchie Valens. Valens called heads; when he won, he reportedly said, “That’s the first time I’ve ever won anything in my life.” Waylon Jennings, who was in Holly’s band, voluntarily gave up his seat to J. P. Richardson (the Big Bopper), who had the flu and complained that the tour bus was too cold and uncomfortable for a man of his size.
But the weather was cold and snowy and probably not the best time to fly in a small plane. All aboard the plane perished when it crashed in a cornfield 5 miles outside of Clear Lake, Iowa.
Ronnie Van Zant was an American singer, best known as the lead vocalist and primary lyricist of the southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd.
On Oct. 20, 1977, a plane carrying the band between shows from Greenville, South Carolina, to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, ran out of fuel outside Gillsburg, Mississippi. Van Zant died on impact from head injuries suffered after the aircraft struck a tree. Bandmates Steve Gaines and Cassie Gaines, along with assistant road manager Dean Kilpatrick, the pilot and co-pilot, were also killed. The rest of the band was seriously injured during the crash. Van Zant was just 29 years old.
Ricky Nelson was an American pop musician and actor. From age 8, he starred alongside his family in the radio and television series “The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet.”
On Dec. 31, 1985, Nelson died when the plane’s cabin on which he was a passenger caught fire and was forced to make a crash landing in a field. The aircraft had been traveling between Alabama and Texas, where Nelson was to perform a New Year’s Eve concert.
There were others who perished in planes, but these were some of the most well-known. It is sad when you think about all of these talents that died in such a tragic way.
Until next time.
(Kyle Lovern is a longtime journalist in the Tug Valley. He is now a retired freelance writer and columnist for the Mountain Citizen.)