Norman Petty
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Norman Petty (May 25, 1927 - August 15, 1984) was an American musician, songwriter, and pioneer record producer of the Southwest who helped shape modern popular music, including pop and rock.
Born in the small town of Clovis, New Mexico, near the Texas border, Petty began playing piano at a young age. While in high school, he was regularly heard on a fifteen minute show on a local radio station.
Petty and his wife Vi founded the Norman Petty Trio, along with guitarist Jack Vaughn. They landed a recording contract with ABC-Paramount Records and were voted Most Promising Group of 1954 by Cashbox Magazine. In 1956, their major hit "Mood Indigo" had sold a half million copies and enabled Norman to expand his recording studio, considerably. In 1957, their song "Almost Paradise" hit #18 and Norman won his first BMI writers award.
Despite the success with his own records, Petty is most famous for his recording studio in Clovis. In his homespun studio, he made 78 and 45 rpm singles for his own musical group and for then-unknown Texan singers Roy Orbison, Buddy Knox, Waylon Jennings, Carolyn Hester and Buddy Holly, with whom he is most closely associated.
"Sugar Shack" by Jimmy Gilmer and the Fireballs and "Wheels" by the String-A-Longs were recorded at Petty's studio. Petty also had a number of Canadian groups record, after coming down with musician Wes Dakus, including: Done On Bradstreet, hot off their performance at Festival Express and the Happy Feeling, who also performed at Festival Express.
Petty served as Buddy Holly's recording engineer and also as his first manager and producer until late 1958. Their split came over differences in Petty's wanting co-writer credit in Holly's songs, in exchange for his extra efforts in Holly's recordings. Many of Holly's best and most polished efforts were produced by Petty at the Clovis studio. Eventually, Holly grew tired of Petty's management and felt he was being exploited.Petty placed his name as a co-composer on many of Holly's songs, entitling him to royalties, a fairly common practice among producers at the time. He moved to New York, and it was the ongoing litigation between Holly and Petty that led to Holly agreeing to go on the ill-fated Winter Dance Party Tour; all of his finances were tied up with Petty and the tour was to provide him with some much-needed income. Oddly, after Holly's death, Petty was put in charge of overdubbing unfinished Holly recordings and demos to add to Holly's record output.
Norman Petty died in Lubbock, Texas in 1984 of leukemia. His wife Vi died in 1992. The original 7th Street Studio is available for tours by appointment only. The Clovis Music Festival is held in September. The festival includes many artists who recorded at Norman Petty's studio.
