(Monday, February 23, 1959) — “Donna” by Ritchie Valens peaked at #2 on today’s Billboard Hot 100 singles chart for two weeks.

Valens, 17, was killed just 20 days before the song peaked on Billboard, on what has become known as “The Day the Music Died,” in a plane crash in Clear Lake, Iowa, an accident that also claimed the lives of fellow musicians Buddy Holly and J. P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson, as well as pilot Roger Peterson.