This past week marked the 12th year since the passing of Jeff Buckley. The “anniversary” was marked with the release of “Grace Around the World”, a compilation live DVD/CD, which approximates the original track list of his “Grace” album with live recordings. Sadly, Buckley was lost too soon to an accidental drowning. I’ve always been interested in artists lost too soon, especially the ones that have been iconified posthumously. It’s always interesting to think what their careers might have been had they continued to produce music.

When looking back through the number of artists that were lost too young, no matter the cause, the list was much too large to be contained in only one playlist. So I am dividing this tribute into a few groups. This week we feature artists lost between 1959-69.

Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, The Big Bopper, and Otis Redding were all lost in a similar manner. Holly, Valens and The Big Bopper were all taking part in the same tour, which unfortunately had a number of circumstances combine into a morbid result. The tour plans did not take into account the travel time needed between venues, also the buses used were poorly equipped for the winter weather. After tiring of the bus conditions, Buddy Holly suggested chartering a plane from their show in Iowa to their next scheduled date in Fargo, North Dakota. The plane crashed shortly after take off that night killing all of those on board, forever marking that date as “The Day the Music Died”. Otis Redding also died in a plane crash with his many of the members of his back-up band, although one that wasn’t nearly as marred in circumstance.

Sam Cooke, in contrast was murdered. On the night of December 11th, Cooke met a woman named Elisa Boyer at a local club. The two left the club and went back to the Hacienda Motel in Los Angeles. While there, Cooke had forced himself onto Boyer. Boyer was able to escape the room gathering all of her clothes and most of Cooke’s by mistake. Cooke took off after Boyer. Unable to find her, he forced his way into the office of the hotel manager, wearing nothing but a sports jacket and shoes. The meeting escalated resulting in what was later called as “justifiable homicide”.

Buddy Holly - “Not Fade Away”
Richie Valens - “La Bamba”
Big Bopper - “Chantilly Lace”
Sam Cooke - “A Change is Gonna Come”
Otis Redding - “(Sittin’ on) The Dock of the Bay”

Related posts:

1. Playlist - It’s Better to Burn Out… (1970-1978)