On September 23, 1957, “That’ll Be the Day,” the breakthrough single by the Crickets featuring Buddy Holly, reached No. 1 on Billboard’s Best Sellers in Stores chart. The hit version was recorded in February 1957 at Norman Petty Studios in Clovis, New Mexico.
The song’s title was inspired by John Wayne’s recurring phrase in John Ford’s 1956 Western film The Searchers. Buddy Holly, drummer Jerry Allison, and guitarist Sonny Curtis saw the movie in their hometown of Lubbock, Texas, and the line soon became the basis for a song written by Holly, Allison, and producer Norman Petty.
With Holly’s distinctive vocal delivery, guitar work, and the Crickets’ tightly arranged band sound, “That’ll Be the Day” became a defining early rock-and-roll record. Although its music is fast and exuberant, the lyric concerns the fear of a lover leaving: “That’ll be the day when you say goodbye.”
The single established the Crickets as one of rock and roll’s most important young groups and helped make Holly an enduring influence on later musicians. His career was tragically cut short when he died in a plane crash on February 3, 1959, but “That’ll Be the Day” remains one of the foundational recordings of the rock-and-roll era.
