Paul McCartney acquires Buddy Holly’s song catalog

I owe it all to Linda’s dad, Lee Eastman and her brother, John. Linda’s dad is a great business brain. He said originally, ‘If you are going to invest, do it in something you know. If you invest in building companies or something, you can lose a fortune. Wouldn’t you rather be in music? Stay in music.’ I said, ‘Yeah, I’d much rather do that.’ So he asked me what kind of music I liked and the first name I said was Buddy Holly. Lee got on to the man who owned Buddy Holly’s stuff and bought that for me because the Buddy Holly stuff was up for sale. Norman Petty just happened to be selling it. EMI was interested in it, Chappels was interested in it, Allen Klein was interested in it and I think, secretly, that’s what got me interested. I had always said I liked Buddy, he was one of my big influences when I first started writing. When it came up for sale, I had to spend my money somehow and I thought, ‘Well, I’d rather have that than anything else.’ Not so much to be greedy, but to just, kind of, be able to look after those songs and do stuff for them, because it’s stuff that I’m really interested in. I like the publishing thing because it’s clean. It just takes care of itself. So I was into publishing now. The strange thing is that we, The Beatles, never owned our own publishing. It was always getting bought and sold. Someone else owns ‘Yesterday’ not me. So it was a kind of compensation, really, for that.

Paul McCartney – From “The Beatles: Off The Record 2 – The Dream is Over: Dream Is Over Vol 2” by Keith Badman

McCartney Music Acquires Catalog Of Nor Va Jak

NEW YORK – McCartney Music, Inc. has acquired one of the top rock ‘n’ roll catalogs from Norman Petty’s company, Nor Va Jak Music, Inc., of Clovis; New Mexico. The catalog contains many of the hits by Buddy Holly. Some of the songs are “Peggy Sue,” “That’ll Be The Day,” “True Love Ways,” “Not Fade Away,” and “I’m Going To Love You Too.”

McCartney credits Holly with being one of his strong influences.

Paul and Linda McCartney are expanding their music operation now that the contract between Paul McCartney and Northern Songs expired, effective Feb. 10. As part of the extension, they have retained Norman Petty, President of Nor Va Jak Music, Inc. to exploit the material acquired by McCartney Music, Inc. and to coordinate and assist in planning new worldwide projects.

Eastman & Eastman acted on behalf of the buyer and Peter Thall of the Robert Casper Law Offices represented Nor Va Jak Music, Inc. and Norman Petty. No purchase price was revealed.

From Cashbox Magazine, February 17, 1973

THE ARTICLE NEEDS FURTHER RESEARCH – The articles above mention 1973 ; but 1976 is also mentioned (Paul McCartney started the yearly Buddy Holly Week in 1976).

1979 was also mentioned by one of our readers:

In 1979 I was working for the National Weather Service and at KSEL-FM in Lubbock, Texas, “Home of Buddy Holly”.  Since I was the EEO Counselor for West Texas and the Union Rep for the Central Region EEO Committee for the NWS, they sent me to a conference in Fort Worth.  The night before the meeting I was in a bar in Dallas (across the street from “The grassy knoll”) sharing drinks and stories with a GS-15 IRS Agent.  He said he was waiting for Buddy’s widow to return from England after selling his catalogue to Paul.  We waited and talked for several hours when I finally said I would have to go as I had a meeting in the morning.  Just as I stood up Maria Elena Holly Diaz came in with her entourage.She was the sweetest lady and we talked for several hours.  I told her my wife was expecting our 3rd child and she took a copy of “Buddy” magazine and wrote a long letter to my wife and myself wishing us the best with our expectant child.  When I was leaving I left her a business card and asked her to call me if she was ever in Lubbock.

Several months later I was going in to work on the evening shift and my secretary said “You had a call from a ‘Maria’ somebody.”  I was mad that she hadn’t given her my home phone number (as she had no problem doing that with bill collectors) and I immediately called the hotel.  I got Maria and she said she had been in town to dedicate a park or something to Buddy and wanted to have lunch with me, but now she was heading back to the airport.  Even though that opportunity was lost, I was glad she had called.

Randy Hartley

Going further

The McCartney Legacy: Volume 1: 1969 – 73

In this first of a groundbreaking multivolume set, THE MCCARTNEY LEGACY, VOL 1: 1969-73 captures the life of Paul McCartney in the years immediately following the dissolution of the Beatles, a period in which McCartney recreated himself as both a man and a musician. Informed by hundreds of interviews, extensive ground up research, and thousands of never-before-seen documents THE MCCARTNEY LEGACY, VOL 1 is an in depth, revealing exploration of McCartney’s creative and personal lives beyond the Beatles.

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The Beatles Diary Volume 2: After The Break-Up 1970-2001

An updated edition of the best-seller. The story of what happened to the band members, their families and friends after the 1970 break-up is brought right up to date. A fascinating and meticulous piece of Beatles scholarship.

Buy on Amazon