The story behind the recording of Buddy Holly’s “That’ll Be The Day,” is a classic story in music industry 101. It was actually recorded several times and was the subject of law suits and career mismanagement.

“That’ll Be The Day was written by Buddy Holly and his producer Jerry Allison. The song had its beginnings in a trip to the movies by Holly, Allison and guitarist Sonny Curtis in June of 1956 to see the John Wayne film The Searchers. Wayne’s frequently-used, world-weary catchphrase, “That’ll be the day!” inspired the young musicians and 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. 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” (Volume 2, track 7) 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.

There are two studio versions of this song. The version of this song that became a No. 1 hit on the eight months later, was recorded at the Norman Petty studios in Clovis, New Mexico, on February 25, 1957, and issued on the Brunswick Records label three months later. 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 artist for this new recording of “That’ll Be The Day” as “The Crickets” to shield Buddy from possible legal action. Ironically, Brunswick Records was a subsidiary of Decca Records.

As Holly’s legend grew, more legal complications ensued. To distance himself from a hastily signed publishing contract in 1956, for a short time he credited his own compositons under his real first and middle name, Charles Hardin, until a settlement and release from the old contract could be sorted out, and he could sign exclusively with Norman Petty’s publishing company, Nor Va Jak Music. Some of Holly and the Crickets hits recorded under the “Charles Hardin” pseudonym include Everyday, Not Fade Away, Maybe Baby, and Listen to Me. Petty sold the publishing rights to the Buddy Holly catalogue to Paul McCartney in 1979.

Holly split with manager/producer Petty in 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. Eventually, Holly grew tired of Petty’s management and felt he was being exploited. He moved to New York, and it was the ongoing legal litigation between Holly and Petty that led to Holly agreeing to go on the ill-fated Winter Dance Party Tour (when Holly was killed in the plane crash) starting January 23, 1959. The re-recorded version of “That’ll Be The Day” was released by Brunswick Records on May 27, 1957.