"That'll Be the Day " is a song written by Buddy Holly and Jerry Allison and recorded by various artists including The Crickets, The Beatles [1] and Linda Ronstadt. Although Norman Petty was given a co-writing credit on it, he was not actually involved in the composition, but only in the production of this well-known recording. [2] .

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Background

The song had its genesis in a trip to the movies by Holly, Allison and Sonny Curtis in June 1956. The John Wayne film The Searchers was playing. Wayne's frequently-used, world-weary catchphrase, "That'll be the day." inspired the young musicians.

Soon after, Holly along with Allison wrote a song centered on that phrase. They first recorded it on July 22, 1956, at the Decca Records studio in Nashville, Tennessee. The studio had produced some good Holly efforts, but the recording of "That'll Be the Day" was not selected for release. After several singles failed, Decca dropped Holly from the label. The 1956 Nashville recording is different from the one most fans are familiar with. This is due to the producer's insistence that Holly sing it at the upper limit of his range while playing it slowly, seemingly dragging it out. This original can be heard in the vinyl collection produced in the 1980s, The Complete Buddy Holly (Volume 2), and also on the MCA reissue of the That'll Be the Day album, now known as The Great Buddy Holly , which contains recordings from the Nashville sessions.

The version of this song that became a number-one hit on the 1957 "Best Sellers in Stores" chart in Billboard magazine was recorded eight months later, at the Norman Petty studios in Clovis, New Mexico, on February 25, 1957, and issued on the Brunswick Records label three months later. The song also went to number two on the R&B chart.

Because Holly had signed a recording contract with Decca he was contractually prohibited from re-recording any of the songs recorded during the 1956 Nashville sessions for five years, even if Decca never released them. To dodge this, producer Norman Petty credited The Crickets as the artist on this new recording of "That'll Be the Day" to shield Buddy from possible legal action. Ironically, Brunswick Records was a subsidiary of Decca Records. Once the cat was out of the bag, Decca resigned Holly to another of its subsidiaries, Coral Records, so he ended up with two recording contracts. His group efforts would be issued by Brunswick, and his solo recordings would be on Coral.

The re-recorded version of "That'll Be the Day" was released by Brunswick Records on May 27, 1957, and is featured on the debut album by The Crickets, The "Chirping" Crickets , which was issued on November 27, 1957. The song is considered a classic in the rock and roll genre and is listed at #39 on Rolling Stone's list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. ^[3]

Credits

• Buddy Holly - Lead guitar and vocals
• Larry Welborn - Bass
• Jerry Allison - Drums
• Niki Sullivan - Background vocals
• June Clark - Background vocals
• Gary Tollett - Background vocals
• Ramona Tollett - Background vocals

Cover versions

In 1958, the song was the first track ever recorded by The Quarrymen, who later became The Beatles; their rendition was issued officially on Anthology 1 in 1995. Norman Petty sold the publishing rights to the Buddy Holly catalogue to Paul McCartney in 1979.

Linda Ronstadt covered the song on 1976's Grammy award winning Hasten Down the Wind . The single made it to number 11 on the Billboard Pop Singles chart and number 27 on the Billboard Country Singles chart.

Rock band The Flamin' Groovies covered "That'll be the Day" in 1972, as heard on the reissue of their seminal album, Teenage Head .

British brothers Paul and Barry Ryan covered the song on their debut album Two of a Kind (Decca LP LK4878, 1967).

In popular culture

• This song is connected with Don McLean's song "American Pie", which outlines a history of rock and roll music. In McLean's song, the recurring phrase "the day the music died" refers to February 3, 1959, when three popular rock'n roll singers of the time died together in a plane crash: Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson. McLean took the phrase "This'll be the day that I die" from the line in this song, "That'll be the day when I die".
• That'll Be the Day is also the name of a film made in 1973 starring David Essex and Ringo Starr and used a lot of recorded music in the soundtrack. The filmmakers were unable to obtain the rights to use original Holly recordings and had to make do with Bobby Vee's covers.
• The original Crickets recording is featured in the film American Graffiti (1973).
• Buddy Holly and The Crickets' version was featured in the 1999 film October Sky during a montage of failed shuttle launches.
• The song was included on the list of songs deemed inappropriate by Clear Channel following the September 11, 2001 attacks.

References

1. Anthology 1
2. The Real Buddy Holly Story
3. The RS 500 Greatest Songs of All Time