(Monday, February 2, 1959) — “La Bamba” by Ritchie Valens peaked at #22 on today’s Billboard Hot 100 singles chart for one week.

Valens’ version of “La Bamba” is ranked number 345 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the “500 Greatest Songs of All Time. It is the only song on the list sung in a language other than English.

Valens, 17, was killed just one day later 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.