50 years ago today, the day the music died.

Fifty years after Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper played their final gig at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa, the Day the Music Died became the Day the Music Went On and On.

Last night's tribute concert at the original Surf raved on for six hours with a contingent of rock vets that seemed as criss-crossed as the original Winter Dance Party tour itinerary, including Graham Nash, Los Lobos, Los Lonely Boys, Wanda Jackson, Delbert McClinton, Joe Ely, Peter & Gordon, Dave Mason, Bobby Vee and Holly's original bandmates, the Crickets.

If nothing else, the 50th anniversary bash -- produced by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and filmed for a possible upcoming TV special -- reiterated to Holly's Texans and Valens' Mexican-Americans why the fallen rock icons even got on the plane that crashed that night in 1959. The temperature outside hovered around zero with a wind-chill that would have sliced through their unheated school bus.

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On a cold stormy night, Feb. 3, 1959, three of rock music’s most popular, up-and-coming stars took a plane ride, never to return.

Frustrated with tour bus conditions after a gig the night before at Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa - rock hitmaker Buddy Holly, along with rising teen idol Ritchie Valens, and radio personality turned music star - J. P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson, decide to board a small charter craft headed to their next gig in Hector Airport in Fargo, North Dakota once their show was over that night.

On their way to their destination, the plane crashed into a cornfield, killing all four passengers, including pilot Roger Peterson.

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