“That’ll Be the Day” is a classic early rock and roll song written by Buddy Holly and Jerry Allison and recorded by The Crickets and various artists including 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. The 1957 Buddy Holly recording was certified gold – for over a million US sales in 1969 by the RIAA. The 1957 Brunswick Records single was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1998. In 2005, the 1957 recording was placed in the National Recording Registry, a list of sound recordings that “are culturally, historically, or aesthetically important, and/or inform or reflect life in the United States”. (More from Wikipedia)
Buddy Holly and his band – by now known as the Crickets (they noticed crickets chirping in the studio one time while they were recording, or so the film The Buddy Holly Story maintains) – then began working at Norman Petty’s studio in New Mexico, concentrating in particular on what they considered their strongest song, “That’ll Be the Day” that they had never been able to satisfactorily record in the Decca studios. The recording was brought to the attention of Bob Thiele, an executive at Coral Records; though Thiele liked it, others at Coral were unenthusiastic.
Nevertheless, in March 1957, the Crickets signed with Brunswick Records. In order to avoid problems with Decca Records – even though Brunswick was a Decca subsidiary – Buddy Holly was not listed as a member of the Crickets on the original recording contract. Not surprisingly, this would create serious legal and financial problems for Buddy Holly in the future.
According to Norman Petty, “That’ll Be the Day” by the Crickets was released in May 1957 to “humor” Bob Thiele. The song became a #1 hit that summer; and before long, the jig was up as Decca Records executives realized that Buddy Holly was their bandleader. However, as Cyndi Lauper observed in her 1984 hit song, “Money Changes Everything”, so Decca Records released Buddy Holly from his original contract restriction. As a condition though, Buddy Holly was signed individually to Coral Records (yet another Decca subsidiary); thus, Buddy Holly was in the unusual position of being bound by two recording contracts at the same time – his earlier contract as a member of the Crickets and this new one as an individual artist.
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More than a few British rock groups adopted band names in tribute to Buddy Holly. The Beatles in part took their insect-oriented name from that of his band the Crickets. One Manchester band of the British Invasion period simply called themselves the Hollies. Yet another British Invasion band, the Searchers took their name from the John Wayne movie of that name, The Searchers, where the Duke often said, “That’ll be the day”; the catch phrase had been adopted by Buddy Holly as the name of one of his first hits, “That’ll Be the Day”.
