" The Day the Music Died " refers to the plane crash that took the lives of rock-and-roll musicians Buddy Holly , Ritchie Valens , and J. P. " The Big Bopper " Richardson in 1959 , but was not used popularly until 1971 when singer-songwriter Don McLean coined it in " American Pie "
The Day the Music Died
The Day the Music Died
Retroactive nomenclature