Holly's contract with Decca prohibited him from re-recording any of the songs recorded in the 1956 Nashville sessions for five years, even if Decca never released them. To evade this restriction, the producer Norman Petty credited the Crickets as the artist on his re-recording of "That'll Be the Day" for
Brunswick Records. Brunswick was a subsidiary of Decca. Once the cat was out of the bag, Decca re-signed Holly to another of its subsidiaries,
Coral Records, so he ended up with two recording contracts. Recordings with the Crickets were to be issued by Brunswick, and the recordings under Holly's name were to be on Coral, although the Crickets played on several of them. The second recording of the song was made on February 25, 1957, seven months after the first, at the
Norman Petty Recording Studios in
Clovis, New Mexico, and issued by Brunswick on July 27, 1957.
Chart performance The Brunswick single was a number-one hit on
Billboard magazine's Best Sellers in Stores chart in 1957. It went to number two on
Billboard's
R&B singles chart. The song peaked at number 1 in the
UK Singles Chart in November 1957 and stayed in that position for three weeks. On December 20, 1969, a reissue of the single by
Coral Records was awarded a "gold single" by the RIAA.
Charts Certifications Personnel July 22, 1956, Bradley Studios, Nashville • Buddy Holly – vocals, lead guitar • Sonny Curtis – rhythm guitar • Don Guess – bass • Jerry Allison – drums
February 25, 1957, Norman Petty Recording Studios •
Buddy Holly – lead guitar and vocals • Larry Welborn – bass • Jerry Allison – drums • Niki Sullivan – acoustic guitar and background vocals • Gary Tollett – background vocals • Ramona Tollett – background vocals ==Linda Ronstadt version==