Holly was killed alongside fellow rockers Ritchie Valens, J.P. "Big Bopper" Richardson and the pilot Roger Peterson when their small private plane, which had taken off after a concert at Clear Lake, Iowa from Mason City airfield bound for Fargo, North Dakota, crashed nor far from where it took off in freezing weather.

The rockers were touring as part of The Winter Dance Party Tour intended to play 24 cities over three weeks until February 15th, with Holly as the main attraction. Waylon Jennings, who was also on the bill, was originally intended to fly with them in the small aircraft, but gave his seat to Richardson who was ill. Valens tossed a coin with another musician Tommy Allsup, to decide who would fly. Valens won the toss and died.

In 2007, Richardson's son arranged for an autopsy on his father’s body because Holly's pistol had been found in a field near the crash site, prompting rumours that an accidental gunshot had caused the disaster. Because Richardson’s body was found some way from the wreckage there was further speculation that he had walked away. But all such suggestions were subsequently discounted.

Buddy Holly scored numerous hits on both sides of the Atlantic, many of which are now regarded as rock’n’roll classics, including ‘Peggy Sue’, Rave On’, Heartbeat’, That’ll Be The Day’ and ‘It Doesn’t Matter Anymore’. He was one of the few '50s hitmakers to write his own material, and he later had his songs covered by countless artists, including The Beatles (‘Words of Love’) and the Rolling Stones, who had a top 5 hit with ‘Not Fade Away.’