Editing The Day the Music Died (section)

==Background==
In November 1958, [[Buddy Holly]] terminated his association with [[The Crickets]]. According to [[Paul Anka]], Holly realized he needed to go back on [[concert tour|tour]] again for two reasons: he needed cash because the Crickets' manager [[Norman Petty]] had apparently stolen money from him, and he wanted to raise funds to move to [[New York City]] to live with his new wife, [[María Elena Holly]], who was pregnant (although he already lived in New York when he started the tour).<ref name="Anka_Page88">{{cite book |last1=Anka |first1=Paul |last2=Dalton |first2=David |title=My Way: An Autobiography |date=2013 |publisher=St. Martin's Press |location=New York |isbn=9781250035202 |page=88 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nK3YhlaflSQC&pg=PA88 |access-date=9 October 2020 |archive-date=April 12, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230412030609/https://books.google.com/books?id=nK3YhlaflSQC&pg=PA88 |url-status=live }}</ref> Holly signed up with [[General Artists Corporation]] (GAC) because "he knew they were planning a British tour and he wanted to be in on that."<ref name="Anka_Page90">{{cite book |last1=Anka |first1=Paul |last2=Dalton |first2=David |title=My Way: An Autobiography |date=2013 |publisher=St. Martin's Press |location=New York |isbn=9781250035202 |page=90 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nK3YhlaflSQC&pg=PA90 |access-date=9 October 2020 |archive-date=April 12, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230412030608/https://books.google.com/books?id=nK3YhlaflSQC&pg=PA90 |url-status=live }}</ref>

For the start of the "Winter Dance Party" tour, Holly assembled a band consisting of [[Waylon Jennings]] (bass), [[Tommy Allsup]] (guitar) and [[Carl Bunch]] (drums), with the opening vocals of [[Frankie Sardo]]. The tour was set to cover twenty-four [[Midwest]]ern cities in as many days{{mdash}}there were no off days. New hit artist [[Ritchie Valens]], [[The Big Bopper|"The Big Bopper" J. P. Richardson]] and the vocal group [[Dion and the Belmonts]] joined the tour to promote their recordings and make an extra profit.<ref name="Suddath">{{cite magazine |last=Suddath |first=Claire |title=The Day the Music Died |url=http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1876542,00.html |magazine=Time |access-date=December 22, 2020 |date=February 3, 2009 |archive-date=August 26, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130826140119/http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1876542,00.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>{{sfn|Everitt|2004|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=H4TSH_b7IHYC&pg=PA10 10]}}

[[File:Winter Dance Party Tour Schedule, 1959.svg|thumb|<!--left|-->Winter Dance Party Tour schedule, 1959]]
The tour began in [[Milwaukee]] on January 23, 1959, with the performance in [[Clear Lake, Iowa]] on February 2 being the eleventh of the twenty-four scheduled events. The amount of travel required soon posed a serious problem. The distances between venues had not been properly considered when the performances were scheduled. Instead of systematically circling around the Midwest through a series of venues in close proximity to one another, the tour erratically zigzagged back and forth across the region, with distances between some tour stops exceeding {{convert|400|mi}}. As there were no off days, the bands had to travel most of each day, frequently for ten to twelve hours in freezing mid-winter temperatures. Most of the [[Interstate Highway System]] had not yet been built, so the routes between tour stops required far more driving time on narrow two-lane rural highways than would now be the case on modern expressways.

GAC, which booked the tour,{{sfn|Lehmer|2004|p=82}} received considerable criticism for their seemingly total disregard for the conditions they forced the touring musicians to endure:

{{blockquote|They didn't care. It was like they threw darts at a map{{nbsp}}... The tour from hell—that's what they named it—and it's not a bad name.|Bill Griggs, music historian and founder of the Buddy Holly Memorial Society<ref name="startribune.com">{{Cite news|last=Huey|first=Pamela|date=February 3, 2009|title=Buddy Holly: The tour from hell|work=[[Star Tribune]]|url=https://www.startribune.com/2009-buddy-holly-the-tour-from-hell/38282249/|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200815061916/https://www.startribune.com/2009-buddy-holly-the-tour-from-hell/38282249/|archive-date=August 15, 2020}}</ref>}}

The entire company of musicians traveled together in one bus, although the buses used for the tour were wholly inadequate, breaking down and being replaced frequently. Griggs estimates that five separate buses were used in the first eleven days of the tour—"reconditioned [[school buses]], not good enough for school kids."<ref name="startribune.com"/> The artists themselves were responsible for loading and unloading equipment at each stop, as no [[road crew]] assisted them. Adding to the disarray, the buses were not equipped for the harsh weather, which consisted of waist-deep snow in several areas and varying temperatures from {{cvt|20|F}} to as low as {{cvt|−36|F}}. One bus had a heating system that malfunctioned shortly after the tour began in [[Appleton, Wisconsin]].

[[File:WinterDanceParty.jpg|thumb|right|Concert poster for the ill-fated "Winter Dance Party" tour.]]
Richardson and Valens began experiencing [[influenza|flu]]-like symptoms, and drummer Bunch was hospitalized for severely [[frostbite|frostbitten]] feet, after the tour bus stalled in the middle of the highway in subzero temperatures near [[Ironwood, Michigan]]. The musicians replaced that bus with another school bus and kept traveling.{{sfn|Everitt|2004|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=H4TSH_b7IHYC&pg=PA13 13]}} As Holly's group had been the backing band for all of the acts, Holly, Valens and DiMucci (and Carlo Mastrangelo of the Belmonts who was a drummer) took turns playing drums for each other at the performances in [[Green Bay, Wisconsin]], and Clear Lake, Iowa, with Holly playing drums for Dion, Dion playing drums for Ritchie, and Ritchie playing drums for Holly.<ref name="WeGoNews">{{cite web |url=http://www.robertlemon.name/myhurley//links.htm |title=Connection to Buddy Holly Death |publisher=WeGoNews.com |access-date=December 22, 2020 |archive-date=August 27, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100827081351/http://www.robertlemon.name/myhurley/links.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref>

On Monday, February 2, the tour arrived in Clear Lake, west of [[Mason City, Iowa]], having driven {{convert|350|mi}} from the previous day's concert in Green Bay. Clear Lake had not been a scheduled stop; tour promoters hoped to fill the open date and called Carroll Anderson, the manager of the local [[Surf Ballroom]], and offered him the show. Anderson accepted and they set the show for that night. By the time Holly arrived at the venue that evening, he was frustrated with the ongoing problems with the bus. The next scheduled destination after Clear Lake was [[Moorhead, Minnesota]], a {{convert|365|mi|-1|adj=on}} drive north-northwest—and, as a reflection of the poor quality of the tour planning, a journey that would have taken them directly back through the two towns they had already played within the last week. No respite was in sight after that, as the following day, after having traveled from Iowa to Minnesota, they were scheduled to travel back to Iowa, specifically almost directly south to [[Sioux City, Iowa|Sioux City]], a {{convert|325|mi|-1|adj=on}} trip.

Holly chartered a plane to fly himself and his band to [[Fargo, North Dakota]], which is adjacent to Moorhead. The rest of the party would have picked him up in Moorhead, saving him the journey in the bus and leaving him time to get some rest.{{sfn|Everitt|2004|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=H4TSH_b7IHYC&pg=PA13 13]}} Their gig in Moorhead was to have been a radio performance at the station [[KFGO (AM)|KFGO]] with [[disc jockey]] Charlie Boone.