If all of this wasn’t enough, The National Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum has rolled out the news that Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper are now getting their own officially licensed bobbleheads. ...

Lou Diamond Phillips starred as Valens in the original, which was nominated for a Golden Globe and earned Los Lobos a 1987 chart-topper for their version of Valens’ 1958 single “La Bamba,” which was ...

Nina Simone’s “Mississippi Goddam,” Ritchie Valens’ “La Bamba” and the original 1968 Broadway cast album of “Hair” are among the 25 recordings that were placed on the Library of Congress’ National ...

Don McLean’s 1971 hit “American Pie” is one of the most iconic folk-rock songs of all time, capturing the dissolution of innocence in the 1960s that came on the heels of a tragic plane crash that took ...

This essay is adapted from Merrick Morton's "La Bamba: A Visual History," published by Hat & Beard Press. “Dance!! Dance!! Dance!! to the music of the Silhouettes Band!!” read the handbill. The ...

Ritchie Valens was rescued from obscurity by a 1987 movie, “La Bamba,” that finally put the Southern California teen’s story ahead of Buddy Holly and the Big Bopper, the two older singers who died in ...