Released in 1995
Written by Buddy Holly • Jerry Allison
Last updated on November 7, 2021
Album This song officially appears on the In Spite Of All The Danger / That'll Be The Day Single.
Timeline This song was officially released in 1995
This song was recorded during the following studio sessions:
The first recording session by the Quarry Men
Jul 12, 1958
Get Back sessions - January 9, 1969 - Day 6
Jan 09, 1969
July 1990 • From Guitar Player
Winter 1994 • From Club Sandwich
From Wikipedia:
From the Anthology 1 liner notes:“That’ll Be the Day” is a classic early rock and roll song written by Buddy Holly and Jerry Allison and recorded by The Crickets and various artists including Linda Ronstadt. It was also the first song to be recorded — albeit only as a demonstration disc — by The Quarrymen, the skiffle group that subsequently became The Beatles. Although Norman Petty was given a co-writing credit on it, he was not actually involved in the composition, but only in the production of this well-known recording.
The 1957 Buddy Holly recording was certified gold – for over a million US sales in 1969 by the RIAA. The 1957 Brunswick Records single was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1998.
In 2005, the 1957 recording was placed in the National Recording Registry, a list of sound recordings that “are culturally, historically, or aesthetically important, and/or inform or reflect life in the United States.” […]
“That’ll Be the Day” was the first song ever recorded by the Quarrymen. Their rendition, recorded in 1958 as a demonstration disc, was issued on the Beatles compilation album Anthology 1 in 1995. The 1958 pressing is thought to be one of the world’s most valuable records, worth an estimated £100,000.
Running an electrical goods shop in Liverpool wasn’t enough for Percy Phillips, and being 60 certainly wasn’t going to stop him. So in 1955, spurred by the local interest in country and western music, Phillips spent £400 on a portable tape recorder and portable disc cutting machine, microphones and a four-way mixer, which were installed in the middle living-room of his Victorian terraced house at number 38 Kensington, a major thoroughfare located a mile beyond Liverpool city center.
Sparse it may have been but Phillips’ recording facility was efficient. Having arrived for their appointment customers would sit in a waiting area and, when prompted, move into the living-room, face up to the microphones and perform, live. While trams rattled along Kensington – their noise was deadened by a heavy curtain over the studio door – Percy Philllips would first commit the performance to tape and then, provided that the Artiste was not distressed with the result, immediately transfer this to a shellac disc, wiping over the tape next time someone used the studio.
Word of Pillips’ facility soon spread, and as skiffle and then beat music took hold so it began to attract a number of Liverpool’s younger musicians, eager to commit their sound to disc and be able to announce that they had made a record. Having travelled with their instruments from the south end if the city, a quintet called the Quarrymen – John Lennon, Paul McCarntey and George Harrison, who all played guitars, John Lowe who played the piano, and Colin Hanton the drummer – turned up at Phillips Sound Recording Service one day in the spring or summer of 1958. A short while later, having parted company with 17s 6d [88p], the five Quarrymen left 38 Kensington passing among them the cherished fruit of their debut recording session: a very-breakable 78rpm record, ten-inches in diameter. The disc’s labels clearly instructed Play with a light-weight pick-up … but bore no mention of the words Quarrymen, and certainly not Beatles, a name they wouldn’t adopt for another two years.
On one side of the disc was That’ll Be The Day, homage to Buddy Holly and the Crickets, featuring John Lennon’s lead vocal with Paul McCartney providing the high harmonies. On the other side was In Spite Of All The Danger, co-written by Paul McCartney and George Harrison, but, again, with John Lennon singing lead.
Colin Hanton (whose membership of the Quarrymen pre-dated both Paul’s and George’s) and John Lowe (who was recruited principally because he could play Jerry Lee Lewis’s exacting arpeggio part in Mean Woman Blues) left soon after the band’s one and only recording session, leaving the nucleus, Lennon, McCartney and Harrison, to aim for fame.
I was amazed that Paul had That’ll Be The Day, the first track that they’d ever done [as The Quarry Men, in 1958]. Duff Lowe, their pianist, had kept it. I think everybody got to keep it for a week. There was only one copy, so maybe John had it first, then Paul, then George, then Colin Hanton the drummer, and maybe Duff Lowe was the last one to get it for a week. But he had nobody to pass it on to, so he just kept it. Twenty years later he still had it, he was going to put it in an auction, he phoned Paul and he said, “Hey, I’ve still got this thing, d’you want it?” So Paul bought it off him.
Neil Aspinall – From Neil Aspinall Interview – Paul Du Noyer
Well that'll be the day
When you say goodbye
Yeah that'll be the day
When you make me cry
You say you're gonna leave
You know it's a lie
'Cause that'll be the day
When I die
Well you give me all your loving
And all your turtle doving
All your hugs and kisses
And your money too
You say you love me baby
Still you tell me maybe
That someday, well
I'll be through
'Cause that'll be the day
When you make me cry
That'll be the day
When you say goodbye
You say you're gonna leave
You know it's a lie
'Cause that'll be the day
When I die
Yes that'll be the day
When you say goodbye
Yeah that'll be the day
When you make me cry
You say you're gonna leave
You know it's a lie
'Cause that'll be the day
When I die
Well when Cupid shot his dart
He shot it at your heart
So if we ever part
And I'll leave you
You say and hold me
And you tell me boldly
That some day, well
I'll be through
Well that'll be the day
When you say goodbye
Yes that'll be the day
When you make me cry
You say you're gonna leave
You know it's a lie
'Cause that'll be the day
When I die
Yeah that'll be the day, ooh-ooh
That'll be the day, ooh-ooh
That'll be the day, ooh-ooh
That'll be the day
In Spite Of All The Danger / That'll Be The Day
Single • Released in 1958
2:08 • Studio version • A
Paul McCartney : Backing vocals, Guitar John Lennon : Guitar, Vocals George Harrison : Guitar John 'Duff' Lowe : Piano Colin Hanton : Drums
Session Recording: Jul 12, 1958 • Studio Phillips Sound Recording Services
Official album • Released in 1995
2:08 • Studio version • A
Paul McCartney : Backing vocals, Guitar John Lennon : Guitar, Vocals George Harrison : Guitar John 'Duff' Lowe : Piano Colin Hanton : Drums
Session Recording: Jul 12, 1958 • Studio Phillips Sound Recording Service
Streaming • Released in 2016
2:08 • Studio version • A2016
Paul McCartney : Backing vocals, Guitar John Lennon : Guitar, Vocals George Harrison : Guitar John 'Duff' Lowe : Piano Colin Hanton : Drums
Session Recording: Jul 12, 1958 • Studio Phillips Sound Recording Service
The Silver Beatles - Lapis Lazuli
Unofficial album • Released in 2010
2:12 • Studio version • A
Paul McCartney : Backing vocals, Guitar John Lennon : Guitar, Vocals George Harrison : Guitar John 'Duff' Lowe : Piano Colin Hanton : Drums
Session Recording: Jul 12, 1958 • Studio Phillips Sound Recording Service
Complete Home Recordings 1958-62
Unofficial album • Released in 2002
2:12 • Studio version • A
Paul McCartney : Backing vocals, Guitar John Lennon : Guitar, Vocals George Harrison : Guitar John 'Duff' Lowe : Piano Colin Hanton : Drums
Session Recording: Jul 12, 1958 • Studio Phillips Sound Recording Service
A/B Road Complete Get Back Sessions - Jan 9th, 1969 - 3 & 4
Unofficial album • Released in 2004
2:59 • Rehearsal • Jan.09 - D4-21 - That'll Be The Day 9.113
Session Recording: Jan 09, 1969 • Studio Twickenham Film Studios, London, UK
The Silver Beatles - Lapis Lazuli
Unofficial album • Released in 2010
1:07 • Outtake • FIRST RECORDINGS - BBC Broadcast September 12th,1985
Pipes Of Peace - Ultimate Archive Collection
Unofficial album • Released in 2016
1:54 • Studio version • [6-7-84]
“That'll Be The Day” has been played in 2 concerts.
Jun 25, 2012 • United Kingdom • London • Somethinelse studio • TV show
Jun 09, 1984 • United Kingdom • London • ITV Studios • TV show
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