I'm not quite old enough to remember any of them, but they all had a big impact on the development of rock.
A lot of people don't know that the only reason Richie Valens - who was afraid to fly - was on that plane was because a member of Buddy Holly's band, a guy named Merle Haggard, gave up his seat.
The first time I heard Don McLean sing that song was when he was an emergency opening act for Steppenwolf at the Long Island Arena in 1970. It was just him and his guitar - no piano, no bass, no drums. The crowd was not really happy initially about a folk-singer opening for a rock band, but he quickly won them over. A few months later I started hearing the song on the radio, and it's since become a classic.
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