Buddy Holly Poster Sells for Record Price

You know the song Bye Bye Miss American Pie? That’s about Buddy Holly. The day the music died is the day Buddy Holly died.

This Buddy Holly concert poster just sold for a record breaking $447,000! Previously the record for most expensive concert poster was $275,000 for a Beatles concert.

But if know the backstory of the poster, you’ll understand why this poster is the most expensive concert poster ever.

First a little background info. Buddy Holly was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in its first year of existence. The Beatles named themselves the Beatles using inspiration from Buddy Holly’s band the Crickets. Holly is also credited with creating the modern rock band set up of two guitars, a bass, and drums. At age 13, Elton John started wearing glasses even though he didn’t need them to mimic Buddy Holly. Holly recorded so much music that his record label was releasing music for 10 years after he died.

This poster is for a show at Moorhead Armory in Moorhead, Minnesota on February 3, 1959. The show was for the Winter Dance Party tour including Buddy Holly and the Crickets, Ritchie Valens, Big Bopper, and Dion and the Belmonts.

On February 2, the Winter Dance Party Tour held a show in Clear Lake, Iowa. Due to ongoing problems with their buses, Holly had charted a single engine airplane to get to the next show in Moorhead, Minnesota, with a little extra time to rest and get their clothes laundered.

The show in Clear Lake, Iowa, ended a little before midnight. Holly, Valens, and the Big Bopper headed to Mason City, Iowa to catch their flight. They took off in inclement weather and at 12:55am the plane crashed into a cornfield killing all aboard.

Buddy Holly never made it to the show that night; the show featured in the concert poster. The news of the death was felt worldwide as Holly was a rising international superstar. The day became known as the day the music died. Holly was only 22 years old.

This poster had been stuck to a telephone pole but had fallen to the ground by the next day, before being picked up and stored for 50 years. There are no other known copies of posters for the Morehead, Minnesota show surviving.

And that’s why this will probably be the most valuable concert poster ever. The record may only be broken again when this poster sells to the next owner if that ever happens.

If you are bummed out you missed your chance to win this poster at auction, there is a consolation prize. You can find Buddy Holly poster concert posters all over Etsy and eBay. Most of them have a different white text box at the top, advertising a Winter Dance Party show on a different date and in a different city. Or you can find ones without any white text box at the top.

Click here to read more about this famous poster.

Click here to see reproduction posters on eBay.

That’s it for now.

Stay rad. 😎