The Big Bopper

Recognized among the trio of rock icons lost in the fateful 1959 plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa, that also took Buddy Holly and Ritchie Valens, the Big Bopper—born Jiles Perry Richardson—had only lately emerged as a rock hitmaker thanks to the rollicking "Chantilly Lace." A Texas native, he spent his youth in Beaumont and adopted the first name Jape. His show-business start came as a DJ on KTRM radio, the outlet where he devised the nickname the Big Bopper. He signed with Mercury in 1957, and the next year his animated baritone propelled "Chantilly Lace"—his biggest seller—onto the pop playlists, alongside the equally raucous novelty "Big Bopper's Wedding." Richardson also penned "White Lightning," a massive country success for George Jones, and Johnny Preston’s number-one smash "Running Bear."