Ritchie Valens

Valens (real name Richard Valenzuela) was born in California on May 13, 1941. As a youngster he sang and played guitar at school, and in 1958 he signed to Del Fi records in Hollywood and had his first US hit with the single Come On Let's Go (which was a UK hit for Tommy Steele).

Follow-up singles Donna (a song he had written for his high school sweetheart, Donna Ludwig) and La Bamba were hugely successful and Valens seemed set to become one of the biggest singers in the world. 

Tragically, he was killed in the same plane crash which claimed the lives of Buddy Holly and the Big Bopper on February 3, 1959. The Beechcraft Bonanza airplane smashed into a cornfield at Ames, Iowa, killing its distinguished passengers instantly.