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 ...

Few dates hold as much resonance in the history of American rock ’n’ roll as Feb. 3, 1959. On that day, a single-engine plane with room for only three passengers crashed into a cornfield in Clear Lake ...