| The Big Bopper | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Jiles Perry Richardson, Jr. |
| Born | October 24, 1930 Sabine Pass, Texas U.S. |
| Died | February 3, 1959 (aged 28) Grant Township, Iowa, U.S. |
| Genres | Rock and roll, rockabilly, country |
| Occupations | Musician, songwriter |
| Instruments | Vocals, guitar |
| Years active | 1954–59 |
| Labels | Mercury Records |
Jiles Perry "J. P." Richardson, Jr. (October 24, 1930 – February 3, 1959) also commonly known as The Big Bopper, was an American disc jockey, singer, and songwriter whose big voice and exuberant personality made him an early rock and roll star. He is best known for his recording of "Chantilly Lace".
On February 3, 1959, a day that has become known as The Day the Music Died (from Don McLean's song "American Pie"),[1][2] Richardson was killed in a plane crash in Iowa, along with Buddy Holly and Ritchie Valens.
Contents |
Richardson was born in Sabine Pass, Texas, the oldest son of Jiles Perry Richardson, Sr. and his wife Elise (Stalsby) Richardson. His father was an oil field worker. Richardson had two younger brothers, Cecil and James. The family soon moved to Beaumont, Texas. Richardson graduated from Beaumont High School in 1947 and played on the "Royal Purple" football team as a defensive lineman, wearing number 85[3]. Richardson later studied pre-law at Lamar College, and was a member of the band and chorus. He sometimes played with the Johnny Lampson Combo.
He 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. In December 1953, their daughter, Debra Joy, was born. Earlier that year Richardson had been promoted to Supervisor of Announcers at KTRM.
In March 1955, he was drafted into the United States Army and did his basic training at Fort Ord, California. He spent the rest of his two years service as a radar instructor at Fort Bliss, near El Paso, Texas.
Following his discharge as a corporal in March 1957, Richardson returned to KTRM radio, where he held down the "Dishwashers' Serenade" shift from 11 AM to 12:30 PM, Monday through Friday. One of the station's sponsors wanted Richardson for a new time slot and suggested an idea for a show. Richardson had seen the college students doing a dance called The Bop, and he decided to call himself "The Big Bopper". His new radio show ran from 3 to 6 p.m. Richardson soon became the station's program director.
In May 1957, he broke the record for continuous on-the-air broadcasting by eight minutes. From a remote set-up in the lobby of the Jefferson Theatre in downtown Beaumont, Richardson performed for a total of five days, two hours and eight minutes, playing 1,821 records[4] and taking showers during five-minute newscasts.
Richardson is credited for creating the first music video in 1958, and recorded an early example himself.[4]
Richardson — who played guitar — began his musical career as a songwriter. George Jones later recorded Richardson's "White Lightning", which became Jones' first #1 country hit in 1959 (#73 on the pop charts). Richardson also wrote "Running Bear" 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 tribes. Richardson sang background on "Running Bear", but the recording wasn't released until September 1959, after his death. Within several months it became #1.
The man who launched Richardson as a recording artist was Harold "Pappy" Daily from Houston, Texas. Daily was promotion director for Mercury and Starday Records 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" as "The Big Bopper" for Pappy Daily's D label. Mercury bought the recording and released it in the summer of 1958. It reached #6 on the pop charts and spent 22 weeks in the national Top 40. It also inspired an answer record by Jayne Mansfield titled "That Makes It". In "Chantilly Lace", Richardson pretends to have a flirting phone conversation with his girlfriend; the Mansfield record suggests what his girlfriend might have been saying at the other end of the line. Later that year, 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. He was known for his "Hello baby!"
With the success of "Chantilly Lace", Richardson took time off from KTRM radio and joined Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and Dion and the Belmonts for a "Winter Dance Party" tour. On the eleventh night of the tour, Holly chartered an airplane to fly them to the next show in Moorhead, Minnesota. The musicians had been traveling by bus for over a week, and it had already broken down once. They were tired, they had not been paid yet and all of their clothes were dirty. With the airplane, Holly could arrive early, do everyone's laundry and get some rest.
21-year old pilot Roger Peterson had agreed to take the singers to Fargo, North Dakota, where the airport serves the cities of Moorhead and Fargo. A snowstorm was inbound, and the pilot was fatigued from a 17-hour workday, but agreed to fly the trip. The musicians packed up their instruments and finalized the flight arrangements. Buddy Holly's bass player, Waylon Jennings, was scheduled to fly on the plane, but gave his seat up to the Big Bopper, who was suffering from influenza. Holly's guitarist, Tommy Allsup, agreed to flip a coin with Ritchie Valens for the remaining seat; Valens won. The three musicians boarded the red and white single-engine Beech Bonanza around 12:30 AM on February 3. Snow blew across the runway, but the sky was clear. Peterson received clearance from the control tower, taxied down the runway and took off. He was never told of two weather advisories that warned of an oncoming blizzard ahead.
The plane remained airborne only a few minutes; no one is sure what went wrong. The best guess is Peterson flew directly into the blizzard, lost visual reference and accidentally flew down instead of up. The four-passenger plane plowed into a cornfield at over 220 mph, flipping over on itself and tossing the passengers into the air. Their bodies landed yards from the wreckage and remained there for ten hours as snowdrifts formed around them. Because of the weather, no one reached the crash site until later in the morning.[5]
Richardson was survived by his wife and four-year-old daughter. His son, Jay Perry Richardson, was born two months later in April 1959. At the time of his death, Richardson had been building a recording studio in his home in Beaumont, Texas, and was also planning to invest in the ownership of a radio station. He had written 20 new songs he planned to record himself or with other artists.
Jay Perry Richardson took up a musical career and is known professionally as "The Big Bopper, Jr.," and has performed around the world. He has toured on the "Winter Dance Party" tour with Buddy Holly impersonator John Mueller on some of the stages where his father performed.
In January 2007, Jay requested that his father's body be exhumed and an autopsy be performed to settle the rumors that a gun was fired or that Richardson initially survived the crash.[6] The autopsy was performed by Dr. Bill Bass, a forensic anthropologist at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Jay was present with Dr. Bass throughout the autopsy and observed as the casket was opened; both men were surprised to find the remains well enough preserved to be recognizable 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".[7] Dr. Bass' findings indicated there were no signs of foul play. He was quoted as saying, "There are fractures from head to toe. Massive fractures. ...(Richardson) died immediately. He didn't crawl away. He didn't walk away from the plane".[7]
After the autopsy, Richardson's body was placed in a new casket made by the same company as the original, then was re-buried next to his wife in Beaumont's Forest Lawn Cemetery. Jay then allowed the old casket to be put on display at the Texas Musicians Museum. In December 2008, Jay Richardson announced that he would be placing the old casket up for auction on eBay, giving a share of the proceeds to the Texas Musicians Museum,[8] but downplayed the suggestion in later interviews.[9]
Songs Richardson composed and recorded include:
In 1988, Ken Paquette, a Wisconsin fan of the 1950s era, erected a stainless steel monument depicting a steel 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, approximately eight miles north of Clear Lake; this is where the plane crash occurred. He 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.[10]
J.P. Richardson's pioneering contribution to the genre has been recognized by the Rockabilly Hall of Fame. 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. Many people say he would have been a great actor and comedian.
His 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 entitled 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 entitled Three Stars in tribute to the three singers. It was recorded by others, including Eddie Cochran, a good friend of all three.
Richardson was portrayed by Gailard Sartain in The Buddy Holly Story, Stephen Lee in La Bamba, and John Ennis in Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story.
On the London stage, Richardson has been portrayed by John Simon Rawlings in the musical Buddy - The Buddy Holly Story, and is currently being portrayed by Steve Dorsett in the 2011 UK National Tour.
Both a movie project and a stage musical about Richardson are currently in development. (See www.bigboppermovie.com and www.chantillylace.com)
The song Chantilly Lace is used in the movie True Romance[11].