Feb. 3, 1959: the day the music died. Buddy Holly. J.P. Richards, otherwise known as The Big Bopper. Ritchie Valens.

All of these music legends died in a tragic plane crash after leaving a winter concert in Clear Lake, Iowa, on a snowy, winter night. In the short 18 months from when "That'll Be The Day" became a hit to the night of that fateful plane trip, Buddy Holly began rolling the snowball that took over the world.

Temple Theatre has not forgotten the contribution of these legends to the beginnings of rock 'n' roll and will be celebrating their music over four performances only when it presents "Buddy Holly: The Concert," a fundraiser for the historic downtown Sanford theater. The event takes place April 18-20.

Reprising his role as Buddy is Baxter Clement, who was influenced by Buddy Holly enough to enter a career of guitar, music and his own rock 'n' roll.

Clement was most recently seen here in the Sandhills when he played a tribute concert to Johnny Cash at the Sunrise Theater.

He has also celebrated the music of Frank Sinatra, but always seems to find his way back to Buddy Holly, whom he has not played for four years.

Michael Jones appears in the role of The Big Bopper. Jones has been seen numerous times on Temple's stage as well as with Moore OnStage and Hot Summer Nights at the Kennedy in Raleigh.

Returning from New York City to portray Ritchie Valens is Ryan Finley, singing the signature song "La Bamba," then continuing on at Temple for its final show of the season - "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat."

Leah Nichols, the Apollo Theater singer, is coming all the way from Chicago to get this "party" going with Nazel Spears, who will round out the cast.

The back-up band will be led by Steve Menendez.

"Buddy Holly - The Concert" will open Thursday night, April 18, with a contributors party beginning at 5:30 p.m., including food, wine, a show and then meeting afterward with the performers.

The concert will continue on Friday and Saturday nights, April 19 and 20, at 8 p.m. and a late afternoon matinee on Saturday at 5 p.m. Tickets, which are $25 each, are currently on sale at the Temple Box office and may be purchased by calling (919) 774-4155 or by going to templeshows.com.

For information on tickets for the Thursday night event, call Chris at Temple Theatre at (919) 774-4512, extension 221, or Cinny Beggs at (910) 639-2504.

"This will probably be the last time that Baxter will be portraying Buddy Holly, and if you missed him four years ago when he played at the Sunrise Theater, you do not want to miss this concert," says Beggs.

Temple Theatre is located in downtown Sanford.