''That'll Be The Day'' is the second and final studio album from

Buddy Holly Charles Hardin Holley (September 7, 1936 – February 3, 1959), known as Buddy Holly, was an American singer and songwriter who was a central and pioneering figure of mid-1950s rock and roll. He was born to a musical family in Lubbock, Texas ...

Decca Decca may refer to: Music * Decca Records or Decca Music Group, a record label * Decca Gold, a classical music record label owned by Universal Music Group * Decca Broadway, a musical theater record label * Decca Studios, a recording facility in W ...

, Holly’s first major record label, after failing to produce a hit single from Holly’s early recordings, packaged these 1956 tunes after he had some success with recordings from the Brunswick and

Coral Corals are marine invertebrates within the class Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. They typically form compact colonies of many identical individual polyps. Coral species include the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans and sec ...

labels, especially the previously released single "

That'll Be the Day "That'll Be the Day" is a song written by Buddy Holly and Jerry Allison. It was first recorded by Buddy Holly and the Three Tunes in 1956 and was re-recorded in 1957 by Holly and his new band, the Crickets. The 1957 recording achieved widesprea ...

". This is the last album released before his death in a plane crash on February 3, 1959, and is rare among collectors.

Background

Recordings were done in three different sessions typically running just 3 hours long, January, July and November 1956 at Bradley Film and Recording Studios, 804 16th Ave. So.,

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the List of muni ...

. From these sessions a single was released on April 16, 1956 (D 29854), "Blue Days, Black Nights" / "Love Me". A second single "Modern Don Juan / You Are My One Desire" (D 30166) was released December 24, 1956. Low sales convinced Decca to shelve the remaining tracks. When Buddy Holly found new fame with his re-recording of "That'll Be the Day" with his band

the Crickets The Crickets were an American rock and roll band from Lubbock, Texas, formed by singer-songwriter Buddy Holly in January 1957. Their first hit record, "That'll Be the Day", released in May 1957, peaked at number three on the Billboard Hot 100, ...

, Decca began to issue Holly's recordings from these sessions as singles, which culminated in a full-length LP as well as an accompanying EP. The Decca 1956 Nashville recordings were repackaged several times. Instruments and background vocals were added with later releases as late as 1984. The mid-1970s British album ''The Nashville Sessions'' is the best of the vinyl editions according to

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

. The album reached no. 5 on the UK album chart in 1961 in a re-release.Album artist 211 - Buddy Holly. tsort.org.
/ref> The album was re-released in 1967 under the title ''The Great Buddy Holly''.

Track listing

;1999 Bonus tracks

Personnel

*Buddy Holly* – vocal &

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

Sonny Curtis Sonny Curtis (born May 9, 1937) is an American singer and songwriter. Known for his collaborations with Buddy Holly, he was a member of the Crickets and continued with the band after Holly's death. Curtis's best known compositions include "Walk ...

* –

lead guitar Lead guitar (also known as solo guitar) is a musical part for a guitar in which the guitarist plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs and chords within a song structure. The lead is the featur ...

Grady Martin Thomas Grady Martin (January 17, 1929 – December 3, 2001) was an American session guitarist in country music and rockabilly. A member of The Nashville A-Team, he played guitar on hits such as Marty Robbins' "El Paso", Loretta Lynn's " Coal ...

* –

rhythm guitar In music performances, rhythm guitar is a technique and role that performs a combination of two functions: to provide all or part of the rhythmic pulse in conjunction with other instruments from the rhythm section (e.g., drum kit, bass guitar ...

*Doug Kirkham* – bass and percussion *Don Guess* – bass *

Jerry Allison Jerry Ivan Allison (August 31, 1939 – August 22, 2022) was an American musician, best known as the drummer for the Crickets and co-writer of their hits "That'll Be the Day" and "Peggy Sue", recorded with Buddy Holly. His only solo chart entr ...

* –

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

*Harold Bradley – guitar *

Floyd Cramer Floyd Cramer (October 27, 1933 – December 31, 1997) was an American pianist who became famous for his use of melodic "half step" attacks. He was inducted into both the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. His signature ...

–

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

*Farris Coursey – drums *E.R. "Dutch" McMillan –

alto saxophone The alto saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments. Saxophones were invented by Belgian instrument designer Adolphe Sax in the 1840s and patented in 1846. The alto saxophone is pitched in E, smaller than the B tenor ...

Owen Bradley William Owen Bradley (October 21, 1915 – January 7, 1998) was an American musician and record producer who, along with Chet Atkins, Bob Ferguson, Bill Porter, and Don Law, was one of the chief architects of the 1950s and 1960s Nashville sou ...

– piano *

Boots Randolph Homer Louis "Boots" Randolph III (June 3, 1927 – July 3, 2007) was an American musician best known for his 1963 saxophone hit "Yakety Sax" (which became Benny Hill's signature tune). Randolph was a major part of the "Nashville sound" for most o ...

–

saxophone The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to pr ...

* line up on July 22 credited as "The Three Tunes". According to buddyhollycenter.org the group name was ''Buddy and the Two Tones'' (i.e. Buddy Holly with Don Guess and Sonny Curtis). *Owen Bradley produced the sessions. *

The Picks The Picks was an American vocal quartet that backed Buddy Holly and the Crickets' band on nine of the first twelve Crickets releases on Brunswick in 1957, as well as backing Buddy Holly solos for group sounds. The original members were John P ...

added background harmonies.

Charts

Album

References

External links

*
Buddy Holly: ''That'll Be The Day'': Decca DL 8707 - April 1958
(Researched and Compiled by Terry R. Shaw Copyright © 2000 by Terry R. Shaw)
2006 April Music Memorabilia Auction #622 Buddyhollyonline
{{DEFAULTSORT:That'll Be the Day Buddy Holly albums Albums produced by Owen Bradley 1958 albums Decca Records albums