That'll Be the Day

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For the 1973 film starring David Essex see That'll Be The Day.

"That'll Be The Day" by Buddy Holly and The Crickets is credited as being written by Jerry Allison the drummer with the group; Holly (the lead guitarist and vocalist); and Norman Petty the record's producer. It is generally accepted that although Petty is given a credit for the composition, he was never actually involved in the writing, but only in the production of this well-known recording.

The song had its genesis in a trip to the movies by Holly, Allison and Sonny Curtis in June of 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 recorded it initially on July 22, 1956, at the Decca studio in Nashville, Tennessee. The Decca studio had produced some good Holly efforts, but their recording of "That'll Be the Day" was of poor quality, 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".

The definitive version, which eventually became a Number 1 seller on the Billboard Hot 100, was recorded eight months later, at the Norman Petty studios in Clovis, New Mexico, on February 25, 1957. Petty was an excellent producer who helped the Crickets create some of their best work, but these superior results came with a price, as Petty insisted on co-authorship credit, and attendant royalty dollars.

Featured on the track are:

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

Music sample:

Buddy Holly - "That'll Be the Day" (file info) — play in browser (beta)
- 13 seconds (of 2:16)
- Problems listening to the file? See media help.

This song is connected with Don McLean's song "American Pie", which talks about the history of rock and roll music. In that song, McLean talks about the day the music died referring 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-ay-ay when I die".

In 1958 the song was recorded at the Kensington Custom Service in Liverpool by The Quarrymen, who were to become The Beatles, on their first ever recording. Their rendition would be issued officially on Anthology 1 in 1995.

That'll Be The Day was also the name of a film made in 1973 which starred David Essex and Ringo Starr and used a lot of recorded music on the soundtrack. They were unable to obtain the rights to use original Holly recordings and had to make do with Bobby Vee's covers.

Many others have covered this song, including Linda Ronstadt in 1976, during a time when she was releasing a number of hits from covers of old songs.