re: Share A Bit Of Music Trivia

quote:

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Richie Valens "won" the spare seat from Waylon Jennings on the plane that crashed with Buddy Holly.

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There is some debate about that.

The most widely told story is that Waylon gave up his seat to Big Bopper, who had come down with the flu. This is the version that ends with Buddy telling Waylon "I hope your old bus freezes up," and Waylon responding "I hope your old plane crashes." In this story, Valens wins the coin flip with Tommy Allsup (Buddy's guitarist).

There is another story, told by Dion DiMucci of Dion and the Belmonts, that says Holly leased the plane for the four stars of the tour (Holly, Bopper, Valens, DiMucci), but they only had room for three of the four. In this version, Valens was the one who was sick, and he and Dion flipped for the last seat.