COME ON, LET’S GO: The roster of...

COME ON, LET’S GO: The roster of departed rock legends who in some way were connected to the Valley or environs is a long one. Take Ritchie Valens of Pacoima. He was just 17 when he died in the Feb. 3, 1959, plane crash that also killed Buddy Holly and J.P. (the Big Bopper) Richardson. Valens’ ode to high school sweetheart “Donna” was then climbing the charts, where it peaked at No. 2. . . . Its B-side, “La Bamba,” reached No. 22.

TURN! TURN! TURN! On May 24, 1991, a few months after the Byrds were inducted into the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame, a heart attack felled founding member Gene Clark, 46, at his home in Sherman Oaks. . . . And just days after completing his first album in more than a decade, singer-songwriter Harry Nilsson died of a heart attack at his Agoura Hills home on Jan. 15, 1994. He was 52.

BE-BOP-A-LULA: He got his start on country music radio in Virginia, but it was his recording of “Be-Bop-A-Lula” that launched rock ‘n’ roll pioneer Gene Vincent. It got to No. 7 in 1956. . . . Vincent survived a 1960 car crash but died at 36, on Oct. 12, 1971, of a bleeding ulcer. He’s buried at Eternal Valley Memorial Park in Newhall, above.

UP THE COUNTRY: Alan Wilson, brilliant but eccentric co-founder of Canned Heat who wrote the Woodstock anthem “Going Up the Country,” took a fatal overdose of pills and gin in Topanga Canyon Sept. 2, 1970. His body was found behind a house owned by Bob (The Bear) Hite, the other founder, who died April 6, 1981, after overdosing on heroin and cocaine at the Palomino in North Hollywood . . . but Canned Heat survived.

RUNAWAY: As Charles Westover, he sold carpet in Battle Creek, Mich. As Del Shannon, he had a No. 1 hit for four weeks in 1961 with the melancholy “Runaway.” But the success of that song and his eight other Top 40 singles wasn’t enough to keep away his personal demons. . . . Shannon, 55, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at his Santa Clarita home Feb. 8, 1990.