Nancy Lea of Selma dropped an e-mail to the STJ that this is a reminder of the day music died.

She’s right.

Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J. P. Richardson, aka “The Big Bopper” died 50 years ago in a small plane crash in a corn field in Iowa. They had just finished a concert in Clear Lake, Iowa.

Holly was from Lubbock, Texas. there’s a big concert planned there to commemorate the event.

Now, this isn’t any big political or hard news item, but art, just true art.

Holly began a style with the guitar that survives to this day among rock and roll aficionados all over the world. Groups that would come later — The Beatles and the Rolling Stones — all trace their influence back to Holly.

And who in what generation has not heard the feverish “Peggy Sue” or the soft ballad “Everyday?”

Just in case you are one of the few who have not heard Holly, here’s a taste.

A half century ago the day the music died.