Richard Steven Valenzuela died in a plane crash in Iowa in February 1959, aged 17. Also on board were Buddy Holly and The Big Bopper. The day later became known as The Day the Music Died.
Born outside of Los Angeles in 1941. Richie taught himself to play a number of instruments gaining experience performing with a local high school band.
Following a tip about the young performer, Bob Keane, the owner of Del-Fi records asked Richard to audition in February 1958 and signed him straight away. Keane recommended that he change his name to Ritchie Valens in order to widen his appeal.
In the winter of 1959, Richie was traveling the Midwest on a rock and roll tour called “The Winter Dance Party.” The tour conditions were miserable with performers driven between venues on unheated school buses in the bitterly cold Midwest weather with one performer reportedly hospitalised for frostbite.
The schedule meant the performers often had to travel overnight in below zero conditions. Buddy Holly asked his manager if a plane could be chartered to the next show in Fargo, North Dakota. Richie flipped a coin for the final seat.
Richie’s mother filed a $1.5 million lawsuit against the owner of the aircraft, Jerry Dwyer. His insurance company settled for $75,000.
As Richie was only 17 he didn’t have a Will – under the laws of most states a person needs to be 18 or older to execute a Will or sign any other legal documents. However as the heirs of Richie’s estate, his mother should have controlled the rights in Richie’s music. Bob Keane claimed that under the contract that Ritchie signed he retained the vast majority of the music rights. In a common story facing many young artists it has been claimed that Richie didn’t read the agreement he signed with Keane and as he was a minor the contract should have been void.
Richie’s mother claimed that “Keane’s business partner called me and said to sign a contract just in case anything might happen to Ritchie; otherwise, I wouldn’t get anything. So I did. I got an insurance policy on his life.”
Keane retained nearly everything –however in 1987, all music publishing rights for Valens’ compositions went to Richie’s mother. Interestingly Keane owns Richie’s recordings “in perpetuity”.
In 1979 Led Zeppelin were sued by Keane as their song “Boogie with Stu” (from their album Physical Graffiti) which had used lyrics and music from Ritchie’s song “Ooh! My Head”. Half of the settlement went to Keane, the other half to Ritchie’s mother.
I was born in June of 1959 but iv always known about Richie I raised my kids to know him and his music it was so sad that he lost his life on a plane he didn’t won’t to fly on he had a fear of flying .God Bless You Richie And your Mama And family
This is just plain ludicrous , how can any judge be stupid enough to abide by a contract signed by Ritchie Valens as he was a juvenile, nothing he signed was legal !!
I am proud to know my dad Vincent Pirillo was his drummer in his orchestra in the early 80s.
I didnt know Richie had an orchestra in the early 80s as Richie died in the l960s
Richie died in the late 50s how could your dad have been a drummer in his band
Richie Valen died February 3, 1959…
Realistically, and Valens is in my personal top ten favorite guitarists and artists all-time, Bob Keen should have the rights to Ritchie’s music, and here’s why:
Reason #1: Though he did not do the best job of it in my opinion, it was Keen who had the only shot at keeping the short legacy of Valens’ vital music contributions alive after his passing. To do this successfully, Keen needed to retain the rights to the catalog, otherwise it would be constant legal red tape, constant wrangling with the family who, let’s face it, we’re not versed in the prolixity of legal copyright/publishing law. They also weren’t exactly on the cutting edge of popular culture. To keep Ritchie alive, someone needed to be going to bat for him always, keeping abreast of entertainment trends and getting Valens’ music licensed for film & TV. Unless a member of his family was going to go to school, learn the industry, and learn how to do that complicated business, Keen, who was Ritchie’s original believer, as people weren’t exactly beating Valens’ door down to sign him to a contract, and so it ought to have been the one who took the chance on him continuing to keep his name going.
#2: Without Keen, it’s doubtful Valens would have been signed to a record deal, and he definitely wouldn’t have been signed at the state he was at when Bob Keen “discovered him.” Very, very few reputable labels would dare sign an Hispanic teenager to make rock & roll records back in the 1950s. Keen was progressive, and did what I can confidently state very few others would have done, with Valens’ merit not factoring in to that decision by other labels, as they simply wouldn’t have signed an “exotic” Chicano twanger, as many others who arguably were more musically skilled and ready for the spotlight never got their shot.
Reason #3: Bob Keen realistically, functionally structured and wrote or co-wrote most of Ritchie’s songs. At the very least, he turned Ritchie’s bare bones two or three chord ideas into the hit records they became, and that’s a fact. In 1957, the young Valenzuela knew just four chords, and typically made up his verses on the spot when performing. Ritchie was gifted in that he could learn by ear, and he definitely made those four chords sound like the cosmos, but he was not equipped yet to write songs palatable for mass consumption, and it required Keen to work his ass off taking the rough & unschooled song ideas from Valens, and turning them into what they became. A little (lot) of help from the Wrecking Crew didn’t hurt, either.
Not only did Keen write/facilitate the final arrangements of Valens’ ideas, he had invested an enormous amount of money into Valens between 1957, and Valens’ untimely death in early ’59. Contrary to what is often thought, Keen likely had not really even began recouping his investment in Valens’ career, as it was generally believed back then that the labels investment would not really be seen until LP #4 or #5 from a recording artist. Labels were in it for the long haul back then, for better or worse.
So Keen took a risk most others would not have, he most likely hadn’t recouped a fraction of his investment yet, he wrote a ton of Ritchie’s primary catalog, and he even gave Valens the money up front to buy his mom a home, thus fulfilling Ritchie’s (adorably sweet) dream of buying his family a home to call their own. Sharp kid, that Richard Valenzuela. I think it’s safe to say that at least the majority stake in Valens’ catalog should have been retained by Bob Keen, and that it was contested made it difficult to keep Valens’ musical legacy going. This doesn’t mean Ritchie’s family shouldn’t be compensated, as they could have been benefactor to half or really a fourth of the mechanical royalties, which they were, I believe.
He died before the 80s