President Holly

1959

February 2---

Holly and some of the other men in his band, including Ritchie Valens, J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson, and others get into a mild disagreement about canceling the next stop on his tour. Buddy Holly's wife had phoned the ballroom where Holly was performing and said that she had serious misgivings about him going on the flight and wanted him to wait a day. To settle the argument, Tommy Allsup, a member of Holly's back up band, pulls a 50 cent-piece out of his pocket and the men all agree to flip for it. Tails, they go on the flight that evening; Heads, they wait until the morning. The coin came up heads. "Oh well," Buddy Holly said. "We probably needed a night off anyway. What with this weather, there's no telling what could have happened."