Norman Petty

Norman Eugene Petty (born May 25, 1927 in Clovis , New Mexico , † August 15, 1984 in Lubbock , Texas ) was an American independent music producer and musician who played a key role in the development of rock & roll with his recording studio .

Norman Petty Trio - Mood Indigo (1954)

Beginnings

The trained piano and organ player initially worked for local radio stations such as KICA in Clovis, where he acquired the technical knowledge necessary for his later work in the recording studio. After his marriage to Violet Ann Brady on June 20, 1948, he founded the Norman Petty Trio in December 1948 with him on the organ, his wife Vi (Violet) on the piano and the guitarist Jack Vaughn. The trio brought out three singles, of which the jazz standard Mood Indigo (September 1954, US hit parade ranked 14th) performed best; This was followed by On the Alamo (December 1954, US-28) and Almost Paradise (December 1956), composed by Petty , which received little approval. It was not until the cover version by Roger Williams made Almost Paradise (February 1957, US-15) known. From the royalties from the songs, Petty bought his first recording device as early as 1940, and in 1950 he bought an Ampex 400.

Recording studio

In mid-1955 he founded the "Norman Petty Recording Studios", which were located on 1313 West 7th Street in remote Clovis / New Mexico in a converted goods store belonging to his aunt. The studio, measuring just 3 meters by 6.70 meters, sometimes forced the musicians to play in the hallway. Petty acted as a producer, sound engineer and session musician ; he had 2 tape recorders , which enabled him to overdubbing by superimposing the two audio tracks . The first studio customers were Jimmy Self and his Sunshine Playboys , the results of which are not known. The first recorded recording dates from July 1955, when the country and western duo Jimmie & Dorothy Blakley had five titles produced by Petty in the “Nor Va Jak-Studio”. They became the studio's first long-term customers, returning regularly between August 1955 and January 1962.

On March 4, 1956, under Petty's direction , Ooby Dooby, produced in rockabilly style, was created by the still unknown Roy Orbison with his Teen Kings . With a lot of reverberation from Petty , the recording was first released on March 19, 1956 on the small Je-Wel label, before Sun Records produced a remake on March 27, 1956 and sold 350,000 copies nationally from May 1, 1956 (US -59). Petty founded the music publisher Nor Va Jak Music (the first letters of the trio members) to broaden the value chain . In contrast to what is customary in recording studios, he calculated a flat rate and not the studio time actually used, so that the artists did not come under time pressure.

In April 1956, Buddy Knox , Jimmy Bowen and their Rhythm Orchids had the recording session for Party Doll / I'm Sticking With You funded by oil producer Chester Oliver and booked Petty's studio. Since the studio drummer David Alldred did not get all of his drums, Petty replaced it with hits on a card box on both recordings. Both recordings - labeled Party Doll with Buddy Knox and I'm Sticking With You with Jimmy Bowen - brought the new studio the status of million seller for the first time after their release in February 1957 . These recordings were given a style that was later characterized as Tex-Mex sound.

Buddy Holly

This also applied to the next, as yet unknown, artist. On February 25, 1957, Buddy Holly appeared in the recording studio with his Fender Stratocaster and his companion band Crickets . He had two tracks with him, of which That'll be the Day was recorded for Decca Records by Owen Bradley in Nashville on July 22, 1956 . Unaware of this, Petty recorded the song again and offered the single to Coral Records , a subsidiary of Decca Records. After the resulting confusion, Decca agreed to terminate the record deal with Buddy Holly so that he could get a new one at Coral Records. From That'll be the day a total of 500,000 copies were sold by the end of August 1957, ultimately generated revenues of over one million, 431,000 alone were sold in the UK. In That'll be the Day , in addition to Holly and Jerry Allison, Norman Petty appeared for the first time as a co-author, although he had not made any compositional work. Through this so-called cut-in , Petty earned US $ 3,333 for this song as a co-composer - which he would otherwise not have received - and US $ 10,000 as a music publisher . He argued quite frequently occurring at that time cut in the fact that the radio DJs would know him better. A total of 90 titles are registered as composer for Norman Petty at BMI , three of which have received a BMI award.

Subsequently, all of the great hits of Buddy Holly and the Crickets were created at Petty. The next recording session on March 12, 1957 arose Last Night , Maybe Baby and Words of Love , overdubbing for Words of Love took place on April 8, 1957. Not Fade Away and Everyday (with the card box as a drum) occurred on May 29, 1957 In the classic Peggy Sue (July 1, 1957), Petty switched the echo chamber off and on to give the drums a rolling sound. With record sales of over 1.5 million, it was Holly's bestseller . In the same session, Oh Boy , Listen to Me and I'm Gonna Love you too were made . This was followed by It's Too Late and Send Me Some Lovin ' (July 12, 1957), Little Baby , Look At Me , (You're so Square) Baby I Don't Care (December 17 and 19, 1957), Well ... All Right (February 12, 1958), Think It Over and Fool's Paradise (February 13, 1958), and It's so Easy and Lonesome Tears (May 27, 1958). On September 10, 1958, Reminiscing and Come Back Baby were created with King Curtis on saxophone. On October 21, 1958, he recorded True Love Ways , It Doesn't Matter Anymore , Raining in My Heart and Moondreams in stereo for the first time in New York's Decca Studios (Pythian Temple) . On January 25, 1958, Holly moved to Bell Sound Recording Studios for 6 hours , especially to level up rave on (with a jazz piano by Petty). On November 3, 1958, Holly had terminated his management contract with Petty, in whose studios he recorded over 50 titles. Holly's untimely death in February 1959 left a void not only in the recording studio, but above all in the music world.

Recordings for other artists

The main customer in the studio was Buddy Holly, otherwise there were only a few musically important recordings by other artists. On September 19, 1956, the Bowman Brothers recorded an LP of the same name here, and Carolyn Hester had her folk LP Scarlet Ribbons (with Holly on guitar) produced by Petty on July 15, 1957 . On July 18, 1957, Charlie Phillips sang Sugartime, the original of the hit, which was later covered a million times by the McGuire Sisters (again with Holly on guitar). Further recordings with Carolyn Hester followed on June 6, 1958. On October 22, 1957, Trini Lopez and his accompanying group Big Beats recorded the instrumental Clark’s Expedition / Big Boy. In December 1958, Petty brokered a record deal with Columbia Records for them . When the Fireballs recorded the title Fireball on September 3, 1958 , Petty chose this instrumental band as a session musician for his studio. Waylon Jennings immortalized Jole Blon / When Sin Stops on September 10, 1958 with the cast Buddy Holly (rhythm guitar), George Atwood (bass), King Curtis (saxophone) and Bo Clark (drums). On the same day, Al Dexter was on the list with Counting My Teardrops. For November 12, 1958, Sonny Curtis set a recording date for Talk About My Baby . Bobby Vee's support group Shadows leveled some instrumental cover versions here in March 1960.

The String-A-Longs (formerly Jimmy Torres & the Leen Teens) picked up the wheels with guitar staccato (lead guitarist Torres muffled the strings of his Fender Jazzmaster with the back of his right hand) in the fall of 1960 after the Fireballs didn't play it wanted to. Wheels jumped to number 3 on the US charts and sold 7 million worldwide after publication in December 1960, with over 150 cover versions, the title brought it to more than 16 million copies and received a BMI award. This was followed by the Fireballs with Rik-A-Tik (January 4, 1961) and Yacky Doo (February 15, 1960), and The Champs immortalized Panic Button (July 4, 1960). Then the fireballs were back in the studio for Gunshot (March 23, 1961) and Torquay (February 17, 1962). Bobby Fuller had My Heart Jumped produced (May 1962), in May 1964 the Canadian Barry Allen came for Over my Shoulder and 9 other singles until November 1969. Arthur Alexander had Detroit City leveled (with the Fireballs; April 1965).

Norman Petty got the approval of Buddy Holly's parents in 1962 to take control of all published and unreleased songs. Petty used the fireballs to add overdubbing to some unfinished and previously unpublished Holly recordings from 1963 onwards. This musically and ethically questionable post-production can be seen, for example, in Brown Eyed Handsome Man , whose unfinished recording was made in Holly's apartment in December 1956. Petty brought this recording - along with other post-produced recordings - to the LP Reminiscing , released in February 1963 ; the single was released in July 1963.

When singer Jimmy Gilmer joined the group Fireballs in 1963, she took the name Jimmy Gilmer & the Fireballs and recorded the Sugar Shack song at Petty with a flute, Hammond Solovox organ and a distinctive 6-string Danelectro bass. Released in May 1963, it became the number one hit for 5 weeks and the top-selling hit of 1963 with 1.18 million copies sold, ahead of Paul & Paula with Hey Paul (1.03 million). The Fireballs' top 10 hit Bottle of Wine was one of Norms Petty's last successful productions (December 1967). There were three more singles he produced for the group, of which Long Green (February 1969) was the last.

Further development of the studio

Petty acquired the Mesa Theater in Clovis in 1960 and converted it into a modern studio with 8-track recording technology, and converted the old studio into a museum. He himself used the new studios until 1969. Shortly after Petty's death in August 1984 (he died of leukemia ), his widow restored the studios, which reopened on September 7, 1986. Now the British journalist Billy Stull took over the studios for 8 years until 1994. During his time, among others, the 11-year-old country singer LeAnn Rimes made her debut album All That (July 1994), which was also released on the country LP Charts topped as well as the following album Blue (July 1996), which sold three million copies by February 1997.

Of the titles produced in the studios between 1957 and 1967, 20 reached the Top40 on the Billboard , including three number one hits. The studio received a Scenic Historic Marker in 2007 . In 2008 the Norman & Vi Petty Rock & Roll Museum opened in the nearby Clovis Chamber of Commerce.

Individual evidence

1. ^ John Gribbin, Not Fade Away: The Life and Music of Buddy Holly , 2009, o.p.
2. ^ Philip Norman, Buddy - The definitive Biography of Buddy Holly , 1996, p. 104.
3. ^ Albin Zak, I Don't Sound Like Nobody: Remaking Music in 1950s America , 2010, p. 78.
4. ^ Wayne Jancik, The Billboard Book of One Hit Wonders , 1998, p. 33
5. ^ Philip Norman, Buddy - The definitive Biography of Buddy Holly , 1996, p. 106.
6. ^ Joseph Murrells, Million Selling Records , 1985, pp. 105/108.
7. ^ Larry Lehmer, The Day the Music Died , 1997, p. 159.
8. ↑ Buddy Holly, recording dates
9. ^ Joseph Murrells, Million Selling Records , 1985, p. 107
10. ^ Philip Norman, Buddy - The definitive Biography of Buddy Holly , 1996, p. 186.
11. ↑ Gran Via, Inc., La Herencia , 2007, p. 46
12. ↑ Dafydd Rees / Luke Crampton, Rock Stars Encyclopedia , 1999, p. 469
13. ^ Two Singles, 27 LPs Certified by RIAA , Billboard Magazine, January 4, 1964, p. 3.