That'll Be The Day (both versions) & Lookin' For Someone To Love Buddy Holly & the Crickets

Buddy Holly turned to rock music after seeing Elvis sing live in Lubbock in early 1955. On October 15, he opened on the same bill with Presley, also in Lubbock, catching the eye of a Nashville talent scout. Holly's transition to rock continued when he opened for Bill Haley & His Comets at a local rock show organized by Eddie Crandall, who was also the manager for Marty Robbins. As a result of this performance, on February 8, 1956, he was signed by Decca Records to a contract, on which his last name was misspelled as "Holly". That spelling was soon adopted for his stage name. He formed his own band, though at that time it had no name. It would later be called the Crickets. That year, Buddy went to Nashville for three recording sessions with producer Owen Bradley. However, as they say, "he chafed under a restrictive atmosphere that allowed him little input." Among the tracks he recorded was an early version of "That'll Be The Day", which took its title from a phrase that John Wayne's character says repeatedly in the 1956 film, The Searchers. The initial version of the song was played more slowly and about half an octave higher than the later hit version. However, Decca chose to release two other singles, "Blue Days, Black Nights" and "Modern Don Juan", which failed to make much of an impression in most of the world. On January 22, 1957, Decca informed Holly that his contract would not be renewed, but insisted he not record the same songs for anyone else for five years. So Buddy got Norman Petty to manage the group, and the band began recording at Petty's studios in Clovis, New Mexico. Petty started contacting music publishers and labels. Brunswick Records, a subsidiary of Decca, signed the Crickets on March 19. Soon after, Holly signed on as a solo artist with another Decca subsidiary, Coral Records. This put him in the unusual position of having two record contracts at the same time.(owned by the same company-Decca) On May 27, "That'll Be The Day" was released as a single, credited to the Crickets to try to bypass Decca's legal rights. When it became a hit, Decca decided to overlook this legal fact. The song topped the Billboard Top 40 chart on September 23 and the U.K. Singles Chart for three weeks, beginning November 1st. The Crickets performed it and another hit, "Peggy Sue", on The Ed Sullivan Show on December 1st. And as they say, the rest is history!

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Buddy Holly
• The Crickets
• That'll Be The Day
• Rock and Roll
• Jimmy Rabbitt
• KOCI-fm

[ZeskoWhirligan]

Unbeknownst to Decca, Buddy re-recorded "That'll Be the Day" at a little studio in New Mexico. The HIT version. But Buddy still couldn't release it because of his contract with Decca. They would have sued him to DEATH. So, Buddy pulled a FAST ONE on Decca Records. He took his hit version to Brunswick Records (a subsidiary of Decca) and Brunswick went ahead and RELEASED the song. The HIT version. Yeah, Decca records was PISSED OFF, but WHO were they gonna sue? Themselves?? LOLOLOL

[05khanta]

smooth

[kerrykokotis]

Even if you dont know of Buddy Holly watch these clips and you will get to know what a great that he was, even the strongest will feel sad watching how 3 guys died so young. RIP

[Shoknifeman]

that should say : The hit version was put onto the "B" side of LFSTL; as a throwaway (Seeing as it had already bombed) so, figuring it didn't really matter (B sides were almost never played at the time); Buddy did the song the way he had written it in the first place, and TBTD went on to become Buddy's only #1 hit.

[Shoknifeman]

@hopop313 The producers at the Decca studios in Nashville were used to recording country stars and they just didn't "get" Rock 'n' Roll, so, they asked Buddy to countrify TBTD and made him sing in an unaturally high key[for Buddy] (Haznk Williams and yodelling were the trend at the time); the result was several songs that Decca put on the shelf, releasing them only after Buddy died. The hit version the "B" side of "Looking for someone to Love"; done the way Buddy wrote it , and became a #1 hit!

[hopop313]

the first version wasn't heaps bad but clearly the official version is waaay better, its in a key that suits his voice, its faster, the recording is clearer, it has a decent intro riff, and it doesn't have that god-awful echo thing going on. I dunno what half those recording studio fellas were thinking back in the 50's. You often get these great songs by greats artists from back then the but mixing was usually terrible, by the early 60's there was a marked improvement with recording, i notice.

[madagascarjoan]

great! thanks.

[EdPernod]

Thanks for posting , he was really too high pitch ( for buddy)at nashville , if was the fashion of the '50's to have the highest picth possible , ( i just remember the movie la bamba) I'm a big buddy holly fan and I didn't had that one yet I tought that I have them all

[imajeed2]

you can hear that he is strugglin in that key! I much prefer the original key!! Great post tho!! Nice hear a different version of a great song!!

[Kazak999]

I think i like this version better....