Wednesday, June 20, 2007

I'm Lookin' Fer...


Rolling Stone ranked The Crickets' That'll Be The Day as the #39 best song of all time. The song itself was written in 1956; named after an oft-quoted phrase by John Wayne in the movie The Searchers.

The original recording of this song occurred in Decca Studios in Nashville, Tennessee, however, it is considered to be of inferior quality to the rock and roll version of the song that was released later under Brunswick Records, a Decca subsidiary. The default release under this smaller label occurred as a result of Roulette liking the songs better than the band who played them. The label wanted the exclusive rights to have Roulette musicians, Buddy Knox and Jimmy Bowen, record the songs instead. Buddy Holly wouldn't budge on his position to record the songs himself with his own band. Since Decca had the original, would-be country version of this title, Bob Thiele (head of Brunswick Records) decided to issue the songs under the band name The Crickets.

A month later, the song became one of the best selling records in both the rock and roll and rhythm and blues markets.

Listen to the 45.

Watch a television screening of The Crickets performing the song.