Ritchie Valens
May 13, 1941 - February 3, 1959

"Donna" is a song written and sung by Ritchie Valens. The song was released in 1958 on Del-Fi Records. It reached #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart the following year, becoming Valens' highest-charting single. "Donna" (written about a real girlfriend) was the final record to be released in his lifetime.

On February 3, 1959, on what has become known as "The Day the Music Died", Valens died in a small-plane crash in Iowa, a tragedy that also claimed the lives of fellow musicians Buddy Holly and J. P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson, as well as pilot Roger Peterson. Valens was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001
~Source Wikipedia