Three Stars

Album

Single

Label

Crest Records

Genre

Ballad

Duration

10:00

Composer(s)

Thomas Donaldson

Entered Chart

Mar 30, 1959

Peak Date

May 4, 1959

Released

Unknown

Recorded

Unknown

Catalog #

Crest 1057

B-Side

I'll Never Change (Carol Kay & The Teen-Aires)

This song is a tribute to Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper. The three entertainers died in a plane crash on February 3, 1959, in what became known as the "Day the music died" thanks to the Don McLean song "American Pie." Tommy Dee (Tommy Donaldson) was a disc jockey at KFXM in San Bernadino. After the plane crash, he got the idea for this song and took it to Crest Records, where he recorded it with Carol Kay And The Teen-Aires. Tommy performed the narration on the song. This was the only hit for Tommy Dee, who died in 2007 after a long career producing and promoting Country music. Eddie Cochran, who was good friends with Ritchie Valens, was the first to record this song, but his version was not released until 1966. Cochran died the year after he recorded this, when on April 17, 1960 he was killed in a car accident. >>

Look up in the sky
Up toward the north
There are three new stars
Brightly shining forth
They're shining so bright
From heaven above
Gee, we're gonna miss you
Everybody sends their love

On the left stand Ritchie Valens
A young boy just seventeen
Just beginning to realize
And explore his teenage dreams
Why did God call him, oh, so far away
Maybe to help some boy or girl
Who might have gone astray
With his star shining
Through the dark and lonely night
To light the path
And show the way, the way that's right

Gee, we're gonna miss you
Everybody sends their love

On the right stands Buddy Holly
With a shy grin on his face
Funny how you always seem to notice
That one little curl out of place
Not many people really knew Buddy
Or understood how he felt
But just a song from his lips
Would make the coldest heart melt
Buddy's singing for God now and His chorus in the sky
Buddy holly we'll always remember you
With tears in our eyes

Gee, we're gonna miss you
Everybody sends their love

In the middle stands a stout man
The Big Bopper is his name
Now God has called him
Perhaps to new fortune and fame
He wore a big Stetson hat
And sort of rambled up to the mic
And how can we ever forget those wonderful words
"You know what I like"

Look up in the sky
Up toward the north
There are three new stars
Brightly shining forth
They're shining so bright
From heaven above
Gee, we're gonna miss you
Everybody sends their love