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Genres: Biography, Drama, Music
Factual error: Near the end of the movie, a DJ announces over the air that the crash had occurred that killed Buddy Holly, J.P. Richardson (commonly known as "The Big Bopper"), and Ritchie Valens. The DJ then plays the Santo & Johnny tune "Sleep Walk" as a tribute to the lost musicians. The crash occurred on Feb 3, 1959 (and one would assume the radio news announcement was within 24 hours of the crash). The song "Sleep Walk" was not released until July 1959.
Audio problem: When Ritchie is playing in the country bar, Bob's drumming is inconsistent with the drum sounds.
Continuity: In the scene when Bob takes Ritchie to "get laid", Bob approaches the girl in the pink dress at the end of the row, while Ritchie goes to play La Bamba. You see Ritchie play La Bamba and in the background Bob is all over that girl. The next shot cuts to Bob just arriving at the girl.
Factual error: The bulletin of the plane crash announces J.P. Richardson (The Big Bopper) as from Louisiana. Richardson was born in Sabine Pass, Texas and later moved to Beaumont, Texas where he lived for the rest of his life.
Factual error: As Ritchie and Donna go for a drive, the middle of the road has double yellow lines which did not exist in the 50's - all road markings were white until the early 60's.
Factual error: The film depicts the coin toss between Valens and one of Holly's band members, Tommy Allsup, as having taken place at the airport shortly before takeoff, with Holly having tossed the coin. In real life, the coin toss took place at the Surf Ballroom when Tommy Allsup, after being asked numerous times by Valens to "let me fly", finally pulled a fifty cent coin out of his pocket and said "Call it." Valens called heads and won.
Plot hole: When Ritchie appears at a pizza party sponsored by a local radio station, his manager Bob Keane is handing out copies of Ritchie's first album. In reality, the album had not been released until April 1959, two months after Ritchie's death. As the actual LP includes his biggest hit "Donna", Ritchie had not yet recorded (or even composed) the song in this part of the movie until a few scenes later.
Audio problem: Near the beginning of the movie there is a scene where Bob is talking to Connie and having the discussion about "honest" money. He grabs Connie's arm, hands her the wad of money and says "We're getting out of this s**thole tomorrow." But he is mouthing the words: "We're getting out of this *crap*hole tomorrow."
Continuity: When Ritchie's brother lies down next to him in his bed, the covers are down to Ritchie's stomach whenever they show him in a solo shot, but are pulled up almost to his neck when the shot shows both brothers together. In the next solo shot of Ritchie, the covers are back near his stomach again.
Continuity: When Ritchie is driving, it shows the speedometer at 80 mph, but in the wider shot he's obviously going much slower. You can tell by how fast the lines on the street are going past.
Factual error: Bob finds the discarded animation cells of Woody Woodpecker, Buzz Buzzard, etc. at Columbia Studios (where La Bamba was produced). Actually, these Walter Lantz characters appeared in cartoons that were produced by Universal Studios.
Continuity: When Donna and Ritchie are riding in Donna's convertible they're going relatively fast, but Donna's hair is hardly blowing at all.
Factual error: The calendar in Richie Valens' mother's kitchen is wrong. The calendar is open on October 1957. That year Oct 1 was a Tuesday and the movie calendar has it as a Wednesday.
