Jiles Perry "J.P." Richardson Jr. (October 24, 1930 – February 3, 1959), known as The Big Bopper, was an American singer, songwriter and disc jockey. His best-known compositions include "
Chantilly Lace
Chantilly lace is a handmade bobbin lace named after the city of Chantilly,"Chantilly" ''The Oxford English Dictionary''. 2nd ed. 1989. France, in a tradition dating from the 17th century. The famous silk laces were introduced in the 18th cent ...
" and "
White Lightning", the latter of which became
George Jones
George Glenn Jones (September 12, 1931 – April 26, 2013) was an American country musician, singer, and songwriter. He achieved international fame for his long list of hit records, including his best-known song " He Stopped Loving Her Today", ...
' first number one hit in 1959. Richardson was
killed in an airplane crash in
Clear Lake, Iowa
Clear Lake is a city in Cerro Gordo County, Iowa, United States. The population was 7,687 at the 2020 census. The city is named for the large lake on which it is located. It is the home of a number of marinas, state parks and tourism-related ...
, in 1959, along with fellow musicians
Buddy Holly and
Ritchie Valens
Richard Steven Valenzuela (May 13, 1941 – February 3, 1959), known professionally as Ritchie Valens, was an American guitarist, singer and songwriter. A rock and roll pioneer and a forefather of the Chicano rock movement, Valens was killed ...
, and the pilot, Roger Peterson.
Early life
J.P. Richardson was born in
Sabine Pass, Texas, the oldest son of oil-field worker Jiles Perry Richardson (1905–1984) and his wife Elise (Stalsby) Richardson (1909–1983). They had two other sons, Cecil (1934–1989) and James (1932–2010). The family soon moved to
Beaumont, Texas. Richardson graduated from Beaumont High School in 1947 and played on the "Royal Purple" American football team as a defensive lineman, wearing number 85. Richardson later was a radio
disc jockey
A disc jockey, more commonly abbreviated as DJ, is a person who plays recorded music for an audience. Types of DJs include radio DJs (who host programs on music radio stations), club DJs (who work at a nightclub or music festival), mobile ...
while at
Lamar College,
where he studied prelaw and was a member of the band and chorus.
Career
Radio
Richardson worked part-time at
Beaumont, Texas radio station KTRM (now KZZB). He was hired by the station full-time in 1949 and quit college. Richardson married Adrianne Joy Fryou on April 18, 1952, and their daughter Debra Joy was born in December 1953, soon after Richardson was promoted to supervisor of announcers at KTRM. In March 1955 he was
drafted into the
United States Army
The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...
and did his basic training at
Fort Ord
Fort Ord is a former United States Army post on Monterey Bay of the Pacific Ocean coast in California, which closed in 1994 due to Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) action. Most of the fort's land now makes up the Fort Ord National Monument, ...
, California. He spent the rest of his two-year service as a radar instructor at
Fort Bliss
Fort Bliss is a United States Army post in New Mexico and Texas, with its headquarters in El Paso, Texas. Named in honor of LTC William Bliss (1815–1853), a mathematics professor who was the son-in-law of President Zachary Taylor, Ft. Bliss h ...
in
El Paso, Texas
El Paso (; "the pass") is a city in and the county seat, seat of El Paso County, Texas, El Paso County in the western corner of the U.S. state of Texas. The 2020 population of the city from the United States Census Bureau, U.S. Census Bureau w ...
. Richardson returned to KTRM radio following his discharge as a
corporal
Corporal is a military rank in use in some form by many militaries and by some police forces or other uniformed organizations. The word is derived from the medieval Italian phrase ("head of a body"). The rank is usually the lowest ranking non- ...
in March 1957, where he held down the "Dishwashers' Serenade" shift from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., Monday to Friday.
One of the station's sponsors wanted Richardson for a new time slot, and suggested an idea for a show. Richardson had seen college students doing a dance called The Bop, and he decided to call himself "The Big Bopper". His new radio show ran from 3:00 to 6:00 p.m., and he soon became the station's program director. In May 1957 he broke the record for continuous on-air broadcasting by 8 minutes. He performed for a total of five days, two hours, and eight minutes from a remote setup in the lobby of the
Jefferson Theatre
The Jefferson Theatre is a historic performing arts theatre located on Fannin Street in downtown Beaumont, Texas. Designed by Emile Weil and built in 1927, it is an example of Old Spanish architecture and seats over 1400. The theatre was built ...
in downtown Beaumont, playing 1,821 records
and taking showers during 5-minute newscasts.
Richardson is credited for creating the first music video in 1958, and recorded an early example himself.
Singer and songwriter
Richardson, who played guitar, began his musical career as a songwriter.
George Jones
George Glenn Jones (September 12, 1931 – April 26, 2013) was an American country musician, singer, and songwriter. He achieved international fame for his long list of hit records, including his best-known song " He Stopped Loving Her Today", ...
later recorded Richardson's "
White Lightning", which became Jones's first No. 1 country hit in 1959 (#73 on the pop charts). Richardson also wrote "
Running Bear
"Running Bear" is a teenage tragedy song written by Jiles Perry Richardson (a.k.a. The Big Bopper) and sung most famously by Johnny Preston in 1959. The 1959 recording featured background vocals by George Jones and the session's producer Bill ...
" for
Johnny Preston, his friend from
Port Arthur, Texas. The inspiration for the song came from Richardson's childhood memory of the
Sabine River, where he heard stories about
Indian
Indian or Indians may refer to:
Peoples South Asia
* Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor
** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country
* South Asia ...
tribes. Preston's recording was not released until August 1959, six months after Richardson's death. The song became a No. 1 hit for three weeks in January 1960. The man who launched Richardson as a recording artist was
Harold "Pappy" Daily from
Houston
Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 i ...
. Daily was promotion director for
Mercury and
Starday Records
Starday Records was an American record label producing traditional country music during the 1950s and 1960s.
History
The label began in 1952 in Beaumont, Texas, when local businessmen Jack Starnes (Lefty Frizzell's manager) and Houston record di ...
and signed Richardson to Mercury. Richardson's first single, "Beggar to a King", had a country flavor, but failed to gain any chart action.
He soon cut "
Chantilly Lace
Chantilly lace is a handmade bobbin lace named after the city of Chantilly,"Chantilly" ''The Oxford English Dictionary''. 2nd ed. 1989. France, in a tradition dating from the 17th century. The famous silk laces were introduced in the 18th cent ...
" as "The Big Bopper"
for Pappy Daily's
D label. Mercury bought the recording and released it at the end of June 1958. It slowly began picking up airplay through July and August, and reached No. 6 on the pop charts spending 22 weeks in the national Top 40. In "Chantilly Lace", Richardson pretends to have a flirting phone conversation with his girlfriend;
the record was comical in nature, with The Big Bopper presenting an exaggerated, but good-natured caricature of a ladies' man. In November 1958 he scored a second hit, a raucous novelty tune entitled "The Big Bopper's Wedding", in which Richardson pretends to be getting cold feet at the altar. Both "Chantilly Lace" and "Big Bopper's Wedding" were receiving top 40 radio airplay through January 1959.
Personal life
Richardson was married to Adrienne Joy "Teetsie" Wenner (1936–2004) and had a daughter, Debra (1953–2006). His son Jay Perry Richardson was born two months after his death, in April 1959. Richardson had been building a recording studio in his home in
Beaumont, Texas, and was planning to invest in a radio station. He had written 20 new songs that he planned to record himself or with other artists. His son also followed a musical career and was known professionally as "The Big Bopper, Jr.", performing around the world. He toured on the "Winter Dance Party" tour with Buddy Holly impersonator John Mueller on some of the same stages where his father had performed.
In January 2007, Jay Richardson requested that his father's body be exhumed and an autopsy be performed in response to an internet rumor about guns being fired aboard the aircraft and Richardson initially surviving the crash. The autopsy was performed by
William M. Bass
William Marvin Bass III (born August 30, 1928) is an American forensic anthropologist, best known for his research on human osteology and human decomposition. He has also assisted federal, local, and non-U.S. authorities in the identification of ...
, a forensic anthropologist at the
University of Tennessee
The University of Tennessee (officially The University of Tennessee, Knoxville; or UT Knoxville; UTK; or UT) is a public land-grant research university in Knoxville, Tennessee. Founded in 1794, two years before Tennessee became the 16th state ...
,
Knoxville
Knoxville is a city in and the county seat of Knox County in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 United States census, Knoxville's population was 190,740, making it the largest city in the East Tennessee Grand Division and the state' ...
. Richardson was present throughout the autopsy and observed the casket as it was opened; both men were surprised that the remains were well enough preserved to be recognized as those of the late rock star. "Dad still amazes me 48 years after his death, that he was in remarkable shape," Richardson told the Associated Press. "I surprised myself. I handled it better than I thought I would".
Bass's findings indicated no signs of foul play. "There are fractures from head to toe. Massive fractures….
ichardsondied immediately. He didn't crawl away. He didn't walk away from the plane."
Richardson's body was placed in a new casket made by the same company as the original and was reburied next to his wife in Beaumont's Forest Lawn Cemetery. Jay Richardson allowed the old casket to be displayed at the
Texas Musicians Museum. In December 2008 he announced that he would be placing the old casket up for auction on eBay, donating a share of the proceeds to the Texas Musicians Museum, but he downplayed the suggestion in later interviews. He died of heart failure in 2013.
The family announced "It is with great sadness that we must tell you that Jay P Richardson has passed away. After a long hard fight, JP succumbed on the morning of August 21, at the age of 54".
C3 Entertainment handles the rights to the Richardson estate, through an agreement with Jay's widow Patty.
Death
![Surf Ballroom Monument](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/76/Surf_Ballroom_Monument.jpg)
With the success of "Chantilly Lace", Richardson took time off from KTRM radio and joined
Buddy Holly,
Ritchie Valens
Richard Steven Valenzuela (May 13, 1941 – February 3, 1959), known professionally as Ritchie Valens, was an American guitarist, singer and songwriter. A rock and roll pioneer and a forefather of the Chicano rock movement, Valens was killed ...
, and
Dion and the Belmonts for a "
Winter Dance Party
On February 3, 1959, American rock and roll musicians Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and "The Big Bopper" J. P. Richardson were all killed in a plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa, together with pilot Roger Peterson. The event later became ...
" tour starting on January 23, 1959. On the 11th night of the tour (February 2, 1959), they played at the
Surf Ballroom in
Clear Lake, Iowa
Clear Lake is a city in Cerro Gordo County, Iowa, United States. The population was 7,687 at the 2020 census. The city is named for the large lake on which it is located. It is the home of a number of marinas, state parks and tourism-related ...
. That night, Holly chartered an airplane from Dwyer Flying Service in
Mason City, Iowa
Mason City is a city and the county seat of Cerro Gordo County, Iowa, United States. The population was 27,338 in the 2020 census, a decline from 29,172 in the 2000 census. The Mason City Micropolitan Statistical Area includes all of Cerro G ...
, intending to fly himself and his bandmates
Waylon Jennings
Waylon Jennings (June 15, 1937 – February 13, 2002) was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. He pioneered the Outlaw Movement in country music.
Jennings started playing guitar at the age of eight and performed at age f ...
and
Tommy Allsup to their next tour venue in
Moorhead, Minnesota
Moorhead () is a city in and county seat of Clay County, Minnesota, United States, on the banks of the Red River of the North. Located in the Red River Valley, an extremely fertile and active agricultural region, Moorhead is also home to several ...
. The musicians had been traveling by bus for over a week, and it had already broken down twice. They were tired, they had not been paid yet, and all of their clothes were dirty. The chartered flight would allow them to avoid another arduous bus ride, arrive early before the Moorhead show, do their laundry, and get some rest. Local pilot
Roger Peterson of Dwyer Flying Service (age 21) had agreed to take them. The weather forecast for the Clear Lake area was that night with moderate gusty winds and light scattered snow, and Peterson was fatigued from a 17-hour workday, but he agreed to fly the trip.
Frankie Sardo went to meet the crowd while Holly went into one of the dressing rooms at the Surf Ballroom where he notified Allsup and Jennings that he had chartered a plane to take them to
Fargo, North Dakota (which is directly adjacent to Moorhead, Minnesota). On a friendly wager, Valens flipped a coin with Allsup for his seat on the plane—and won. Meanwhile, J.P. Richardson was suffering from the flu and was complaining that the bus was too cold and uncomfortable for him, so Jennings voluntarily surrendered his seat. Upon hearing that his bandmates had given away their plane seats, Holly joked, "Well, I hope your ol' bus freezes up again." Jennings jokingly replied, "Well, I hope your ol' plane crashes".
The Clear Lake show ended at around midnight and Holly, Valens, and Richardson drove to the Mason City Airport, loaded their luggage and boarded the red and white single-engine
Beechcraft Bonanza. Peterson received clearance from the control tower around 12:55 a.m. on February 3, 1959, and they took off—but the plane remained airborne for only a few minutes. It crashed at full throttle shortly after takeoff about 5 miles outside Mason City in the middle of farm country. The reason remains unknown but Peterson may have lost his visual reference and thought that he was ascending while he was actually descending. The right wingtip of the Bonanza hit the frozen ground and sent the aircraft cartwheeling across a cleared cornfield at approximately .
Holly, Valens and Richardson were thrown from the aeroplane on impact and likely tumbled along with the wreckage across the icy field before the wreckage of the aircraft came to rest against a barbed-wire fence, while Peterson's body remained entangled in the wreckage. The bodies of Holly and Valens came to rest several feet away from the wreckage on open ground; Richardson was thrown approximately beyond the wreckage across the fence line and into the next cornfield. All three died instantly of head and chest injuries. Richardson was 28 years old.
Compositions
* "
Chantilly Lace
Chantilly lace is a handmade bobbin lace named after the city of Chantilly,"Chantilly" ''The Oxford English Dictionary''. 2nd ed. 1989. France, in a tradition dating from the 17th century. The famous silk laces were introduced in the 18th cent ...
", No. 6 hit for the Big Bopper
* "
The Purple People Eater
"The Purple People Eater" is a novelty song written and performed by Sheb Wooley, which reached No. 1 in the ''Billboard'' pop charts in 1958 from June 9 to July 14, No. 1 in Canada, reached No. 12 overall in the UK Singles Chart, and topped ...
Meets the
Witch Doctor
A witch doctor (also spelled witch-doctor) was originally a type of healer who treated ailments believed to be caused by witchcraft. The term is now more commonly used to refer to healers, particularly in regions which use traditional healing ...
"
* "Little Red Riding Hood"
* "Walking Through My Dreams" (two versions, one on 45-RPM only, the other on LP)
* "Beggar to a King" (recorded under his real name), (later recorded by
Hank Snow
Clarence Eugene "Hank" Snow (May 9, 1914 – December 20, 1999) was a Canadian-American country music artist. Most popular in the 1950s, he had a career that spanned more than 50 years, he recorded 140 albums and charted more than 85 singles on ...
in 1961, it made it to No. 5 on the country singles chart)
* "Crazy Blues" (recorded under his real name)
* "Bopper's Boogie Woogie"
* "That's What I'm Talking About"
* "Pink Petticoats"
* "Monkey Song (You Made a Monkey out of Me)"
* "It's the Truth, Ruth" (two versions, one on 45-RPM only, the other on LP)
* "Preacher and the Bear"
* "Someone Watching Over You"
* "Old Maid"
* "Strange Kisses"
* "Teenage Moon"
* "The Clock"
* "One More Chance"
* "She Giggles"
* "The Big Bopper's Wedding"
Songwriting
* "
White Lightnin'", No. 1 Country hit for George Jones
* "
Treasure of Love", No. 6 Country hit for George Jones
* "
Running Bear
"Running Bear" is a teenage tragedy song written by Jiles Perry Richardson (a.k.a. The Big Bopper) and sung most famously by Johnny Preston in 1959. The 1959 recording featured background vocals by George Jones and the session's producer Bill ...
", No. 1 hit for Johnny Preston and
Sonny James
Jimmie Hugh Loden (May 1, 1928February 22, 2016), known professionally as Sonny James, was an American country music singer and songwriter best known for his 1957 hit, " Young Love", topping both of the early versions of today's ''Billboard'' ...
Tributes
![HollyMonument](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/02/HollyMonument.jpg)
In 1988, Ken Paquette, a Wisconsin fan of the 1950s era, erected a stainless steel monument at the crash site depicting a guitar and a set of three records bearing the names of each of the three performers. It is located on private farmland, about one-quarter-mile west of the intersection of 315th Street and Gull Avenue, about eight miles north of Clear Lake. Paquette also created a similar stainless steel monument to the three near the Riverside Ballroom in
Green Bay, Wisconsin. The memorial was unveiled on July 17, 2003.
J.P. Richardson's pioneering contribution to the genre has been recognized by the
Rockabilly Hall of Fame
The Rockabilly Hall of Fame is an organization and website launched on March 21, 1997, to present early rock and roll history and information relating to the artists and personalities involved in rockabilly.
Headquartered in Nashville, Tennesse ...
. The Big Bopper is fondly remembered not only for his distinctive singing and songwriting, but also as a humorist who combined the best elements of country, R&B, and rock 'n' roll.
In 2010, Richardson was inducted into the
Iowa Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame.
Richardson's name is mentioned as one of the upcoming musical acts in both the print and television versions of
Stephen King's short story "
You Know They Got a Hell of a Band" about a town inhabited by late musical legends. Buddy Holly is subsequently featured in the story.
The Canadian television comedy show ''
SCTV'' featured a character named "Sue Bopper-Simpson", a fictional daughter of the Big Bopper, played by
Catherine O'Hara. The character was a part-time real estate agent who appeared in a musical titled ''I'm Taking My Own Head, Screwing It on Right, and No Guy's Gonna Tell Me That It Ain't''.
Shortly after the fatal plane crash, Tommy Dee wrote and recorded a song titled "
Three Stars" in tribute to Richardson, Holly, and Valens. It was later recorded by
Eddie Cochran
Ray Edward Cochran (; October 3, 1938 – April 17, 1960) was an American rock and roll musician. Cochran's songs, such as " Twenty Flight Rock", "Summertime Blues", " C'mon Everybody" and " Somethin' Else", captured teenage frustration and desir ...
, a friend of the three musicians who himself would die prematurely a year later in an automobile crash.
The accident was referred to as "
The Day the Music Died
On February 3, 1959, American rock and roll musicians Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and "The Big Bopper" J. P. Richardson were all killed in a plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa, together with pilot Roger Peterson. The event later beca ...
" in
Don McLean
Donald McLean III (born October 2, 1945) is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. He is best known for his 1971 hit song " American Pie", an eight-and-a-half-minute folk rock "cultural touchstone" about the loss of innocence of the early ...
's 1971 song "
American Pie".
Van Halen
Van Halen ( ) was an American rock band formed in Pasadena, California, in 1972. Credited with "restoring hard rock to the forefront of the music scene", Van Halen was known for its energetic live shows and for the virtuosity of its lead gu ...
's song "Good Enough" from their 1986 album ''
5150'' begins with singer
Sammy Hagar
Samuel Roy Hagar (born October 13, 1947), also known as the Red Rocker, is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist. He rose to prominence in the early 1970s with the hard rock band Montrose and subsequently launched a successful solo car ...
calling out "Hello Baby!", imitating the Big Bopper's hook in "Chantilly Lace".
Phil Lewis of
L.A. Guns does the same in their song "17 Crash" from their 1989 album ''
Cocked & Loaded''.
The ''
Simpsons'' episode "
Sideshow Bob Roberts" features a gravestone of The Big Bopper in Springfield that
Sideshow Bob
Robert Underdunk Terwilliger Jr., PhD, better known as Sideshow Bob, is a recurring character in the animated television series ''The Simpsons''. He is voiced by Kelsey Grammer and first appeared in the episode " The Telltale Head". Bob is a se ...
(
Kelsey Grammer
Allen Kelsey Grammer (born February 21, 1955) is an American actor and producer. He gained notoriety and acclaim for his role as psychiatrist Dr. Frasier Crane on the NBC sitcom ''Cheers'' (1984-1993) and its spin-off ''Frasier'' (1993-2004), ...
) used to help commit
voter fraud
Electoral fraud, sometimes referred to as election manipulation, voter fraud or vote rigging, involves illegal interference with the process of an election, either by increasing the vote share of a favored candidate, depressing the vote share of ...
and become elected for mayor. The gravestone is a bust of the Big Bopper holding a telephone receiver, with the epitaph reading "The Big Bopper", his birth and death years (1930–1959), then a parody on the memorable hook reading "Gooooodbye, baby". He also appeared as a vampire holding a telephone in an ''Itchy and Scratchy'' cartoon during the episode "
C.E.D'oh
"C.E.D'oh" is the fifteenth episode of the The Simpsons (season 14), fourteenth season of the American animated television series ''The Simpsons''. It first aired on the Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox network in the United States on March 16, 2003 ...
".
An episode of ''
The X-Files
''The X-Files'' is an American science fiction drama television series created by Chris Carter. The series revolves around Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Special Agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson), who ...
'' features the Big Bopper. The episode is called "
Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose
"Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose" is the fourth episode of the third season of the American science fiction television series ''The X-Files''. Directed by David Nutter and written by Darin Morgan, the installment serves as a "Monster-of-the-Week" ...
".
The Big Bopper's estate is currently owned by his daughter-in-law, Patty Richardson, and managed by
C3 Entertainment, a company that specializes in classic brands. C3 Entertainment currently manages an official
tribute band
A tribute act, tribute band or tribute group is a music group, singer, or musician who specifically plays the music of a well-known music act. Tribute acts include individual performers who mimic the songs and style of an artist, such as ...
featuring a Big Bopper impersonator, touring with the Winter Dance Party. In 2019, the Winter Dance Party debuted the film ''Bopper and Me.''
Book, film, and stage
In ''Not Fade Away'', a turbulent road novel taking place at the end of the fifties,
Jim Dodge narrates an eventful trip to the Big Bopper's grave.
Richardson was portrayed by
Gailard Sartain
Gailard Sartain (born September 18, 1946) is an American retired actor, often playing characters with roots in the South. He was a regular on the country music variety series ''Hee Haw''. He is also known for his roles in three of the Ernest m ...
in ''
The Buddy Holly Story
''The Buddy Holly Story'' is a 1978 American biographical film which tells the life and career of rock and roll musician Buddy Holly. It features an Academy Award-winning musical score, adapted by Joe Renzetti and Oscar-nominated lead perfor ...
'',
Stephen Lee in ''
La Bamba'', and
John Ennis in ''
Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story''.
"Chantilly Lace" is used in the movies ''
True Romance
''True Romance'' is a 1993 American romantic crime film directed by Tony Scott and written by Quentin Tarantino. It features an ensemble cast led by Christian Slater and Patricia Arquette, with Dennis Hopper, Val Kilmer, Gary Oldman, Brad Pitt ...
'' and ''
American Graffiti
''American Graffiti'' is a 1973 American coming-of-age comedy-drama film directed by George Lucas, produced by Francis Ford Coppola, written by Willard Huyck, Gloria Katz and Lucas, and starring Richard Dreyfuss, Ron Howard (billed as Ronny ...
'' as well as "High Spirits" and "Cocktail".
In the animated series ''
The Venture Bros.
''The Venture Bros.'' is an American adult animated action comedy TV series created by Chris McCulloch (also known as "Jackson Publick") for Cartoon Network's late night programming block Adult Swim. Following a pilot episode on February 16, 200 ...
'', it is implied that the elderly villains Dragoon and Red Mantle are actually Richardson and Buddy Holly, who were recruited into the supervillain organization the Guild of Calamitous Intent on the night of their supposed deaths.
In 2016 the rock and roll legend was immortalized by software studio ''
Realtime Gaming'' in a slot game named appropriately - The Big Bopper.
References
Further reading
*
Escott, Colin (1998). "The Big Bopper (J.P. Richardson)". In ''The Encyclopedia of Country Music''. Paul Kingsbury, Editor. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 35,
''Tribute: The Day the Music Died'' at The Death of Rock: The Archive
External links
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Big Bopper, The
1930 births
1959 deaths
Accidental deaths in Iowa
American radio DJs
American novelty song performers
American rock singers
Gold Star Records artists
D Records artists
Mercury Records artists
Singers from Texas
Songwriters from Texas
People from Beaumont, Texas
People from Port Arthur, Texas
Lamar University alumni
Burials in Texas
Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in the United States
20th-century American singers
Rock and roll musicians
Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in 1959
20th-century American male singers
American baritones
Musicians killed in aviation accidents or incidents
American male songwriters
United States Army non-commissioned officers