WHERE BUDDY HOLLY RECORDED HIS HITS! Norman Petty Studios

[Music] there it is I cannot believe we are standing right in front of where Buddy Holly made all of his most famous recordings this is just unbelievable to me and big shout out to Vai it's thanks to her after Norman passed away and she put it in her will I believe that she wanted this to stay open so people could continue to visit even after she's gone so here it says 13 norm began cutting records and his father's filling station with money earned from the Norman petty trios mood indigo petty converted a family grocery store next door into a modern recording studio where he experimented with echo and microphone settings in 1957 petit made rock n roll history recording Buddy Holly and the crickets that'll be the day the sound influenced a generation and his techniques are still used today want to see something cool look what's right next door a filling station Norman literally created a whole sound here he was a pioneer in using vacuum tubes and just creating a sound that nobody else could match every artist sounded unique in their own way now as I understand when Buddy Holly passed away Norman petty left this studio and started a new studio on Main Street so this is the great David Bingham and you sir worked with Norman petty you were an artist that recorded with I mean you were just telling me some great stories you were basically telling me Norman started the studio as a private thing for the trio but do you want to tell me again how how it kind of became commercial well and how you got involved okay a young man who lived about nine miles east of here came over and recordings and one of the songs that he recorded went to number one and when that happened basically open the door what was the song great song and of course that opened the door for people like Buddy Holly and Roy Orbison who incidentally Roy's the one that brought me to Clovis how did you know Roy I grew up in Odessa Texas whyn't Texas as a crow flies it's only forty miles away yeah but there's nothing there yeah I've been there you're gonna miss it yeah if you blink and wink you'll miss it but anyway back in the fifties your local TV stations if you can get a sponsor like a furniture company or a car dealership or something like that to sponsor you you could have a 30-minute show on Saturday with glass before the glasses or he was wearing glasses but he did a lot of performing then not wearing glasses yeah that's I remember yeah at that time but anyway in December of 1956 my group at that time which was called the Four Roses went to Memphis to Sun records with Roy and Wow and recording back there we did a song called sweetened easy to love and devil doll oh yeah neither one I went to number one but we were proud of many you know but at that time Sam Phillips had no desire for Roy Orbison because he had Presley Jerry Lee Lewis yeah Johnny Cash who needs Roy Wright that kid named Roy anyway we came back and Roy wasn't happy because he was hoping that Sam would you know do more for him so he suggested why don't we go to close New Mexico well the other three members of the Four Roses were still at my school and they didn't want to come up here so I formed a new group and we just called ourselves the roses came too close but for some reason another mr. petty liked us in any SS if we would be willing to move up here become a stop vocalist Wow and of course it took us about a sixteenth of a second did it was it enough to me I mean could you live off it I don't know what session vocalist made back then but yeah if you have more than one and you want to rent a house and you can strip the rental I'm on whoever wants to rent with you you know so there were three voices that moved up here plus mr. penny hired the drummer that we had for our combo band bending Odessa okay his name was bo Clark a very good drummer and so there were four of us and we rented a house at western town here and I think we were paying $25 a piece so that's yeah yeah plus you live in your dream making music and and so that's how you probably got involved recording with Buddy Holly yes well being staff vocalist anytime there was a void in a recording Roman would bring us in and we would add he liked to do that didn't he like to bring in keyboards and stuff he like little trinket type yeah fillers yeah yeah like--on yeah yeah then they hate that one the guys who recorded that didn't like it at first they thought he had run their song but it was released and it started climbing the charts and got to number one and then the year ended and it was voted the most played in popular song of the year in 1963 at that point the fireball said well aboard maybe you are a genius but anyway George Thomas Cove the fireball has made several mistakes Norman wrote a song called wheels have you ever heard it I don't think so carousel sound he wanted to fire balls to record that and George TomSka said no that's not that type of music where guitar plays you know yeah well George later admitted that after 40 million record sales that he wishes he listened to Norman there I bet so did sorry to interrupt you did you being a such a vocalist did that ruin the roses being in their own act at all I mean did it disturb it at all or did it make it easier to have time to work together well we never did perform locally because we were too recording right I got a CD over the weekend from a young man out in California who's working with Novacek music releasing some recordings that never had been released Wow but he had released a couple and I asked him if he can get me a copy of that and he said sure well he sent me 64 recordings Wow and that was part of what we were yeah they probably stuff you forgotten about or probably hadn't heard and you know yeah but I could pick our voices now so I knew it was this but that doesn't sound like much but that was a lot of work and we we worked at night we didn't work I heard that he thought that the echo chamber sounded better at night or something it cooled off or something I thought because during the day you've got heat factor right even though this is a climate-controlled building so to speak you still got heat to contend with but also they the norman paid a trio they weren't on the road for about seven or eight years before buddy notch or anybody ever came along oh wow so they were accustomed to sleeping during the day absolutely and performing at night and to to have this street here which is seventh Street that was the main highway oh so we've been loud during the day probably well yeah it's not as bad wasn't as bad van as it is now with traffic but to steal that made a difference plus this was a light industrial area and back then at five o'clock they shut doors went home you know right and stay open until 12 or 24 hours a day or whatever plus TV went off yeah you got the snow so there was a lot of factors involved in fact Norman even we have it only CD in here someone asked him why he stayed in Clovis to do his recordings and he talked about most of the people in Clovis did not even know what we were doing out here because we were active at night yeah yeah but the main reason Norman stayed in Clovis our sessions instead of him charging by the hour he charged by the session which was $75 per sign side if you were in Memphis Nashville of New York or ever you paid by the hour right and at the end of the time that you'd paid for which was maybe two hours and you didn't have anything sorry but you're out yeah yeah when those those sessions you have to go in there being ready not ready to fiddle around and come up with ideas now admittedly most of the people that came through we're just trying to get on the label mm-hmm but nevertheless there was some talent there and Norman didn't believe that creativity came by the hour that's brilliant now can I ask you how did buddy end up here and and what was buddy like to work with Buddy Holly and Jerry Alice and the drummer went to the movies one day and they saw a movie with John Wayne called The Searchers and throughout that movie John Wayne kept saying that'll be the day and Buddy thought what I'd make a good song title so after the movie they went to Jerry's house and held a jam session and they wrote that song he and Jerry did and then they did a demo tape of it and Buddy took it to Decca Records in Nashville because prior to coming here he was more or less country in question he was anyway they listened to the demo politely entity back to him and said take your music back to Louisville Wow so he came back to Louisville and he talked to a deejay or the name of my pocket Duncan and he said what do you think of altitude said Wilson my track Clovis New Mexico said there's a man over there there's got his own studio that is off the group and buddy said well is he a good [Music] so supposedly but it came over told Norman you got a hit for him get one for me easier said yeah so they redid the demo tape and then Norman was able to take it to New York and that pitched it I say picture that's you know trying to sell ya pleaded around you people so he took it to coral records and the rest was history that point on and and and you know I don't I don't mean to today they're downgrade or talk badly about anyone but Maria Lehner buddies Widow thought that Norman had not been enough for Betty Holly that's what I hear a lot of like they say that he was people had said you know Norman was keeping buddies money or you know that's and but all the interviews I see with other artists they have nothing but nice things to say so it's kind of polarizing almost but let's look at the facts but it came over here in 1957 or maybe leave picture six I don't remember and that's when it all started he died in her early 1959 which is not even three years yeah but in 1956 or 57 he came over as an unknown and when he died he was known worldwide a legend now right and in a 15 month period there were 12 major hits that came out of here so what more could Norman have done for him yeah it's quite a lot well and didn't Buddy wanted I mean I'm sure working with Norman kind of influenced buddy don't want to be a producer himself because they said that was what he was working on he was wanting to start a label be a producer and you know a lot of that comes from being around good people and learning from them and wanting to put your touch on it so well demeanor he he knew what he wanted to do and he knew that he was going to work at it until he got there there's a document inside the control room here it's a deed so speak or buddy at purchased property in Lubbock and Norman was going to be a sales manager well the roses my group was going to be promotion I believe it was and somebody else was there anyway buddy at that time I was purchasing property to build his own studio yeah but there was you hear a lot of stories about Norman with owning money you know who Peggy Sue was yes Karen yeah that was Jerry Otteson wife at one point she wrote a book she wrote two books in fact and in the first book she stated and she was in New York and all this going on that it wasn't Norman withholding funds it was the record companies because they were making sure that they were sending the money to the right individuals hmm because you get writers royalties you got artists recording recordings I'm glad you brought that up because I had mentioned that earlier in here that that some of the interviews I had found where people had said that Norman had kind of stiff buddy on think there was even a quote where one this person said Norman said I'd rather see you die than give you the money that you're owed and and so it's nice to talk to you who who is around Norman probably as much as anybody could be being his session vocalist and you got to know him really well and you got to see it from firsthand so I'm glad that you're able to clear that up but just knowing the two and knowing their characters and their in their personalities and everything I know that they were better people than what they're talked about sometimes and it's real easy to talk about somebody that you've never met because they're not that Karif you I completely agree so don't believe everything you say you hear because probably a man and a person so what songs did you sing backup on that people would know and especially the Buddy Holly stuff I mean that's the stuff that I I was really shocked when when your friend when I called to make an appointment here he said well he recorded on a lot of Buddy songs you better talk to him about that well the two men got into the charts and went up fairly high was think it over and it's so easy god I love that song I love it and then of course we were on some others but those were the two that well known and then we we did work with buddy Knox he came back and several of his songs got very high in the charts in fact in nineteen 1986 I believe it was my pitty started a music festival here and she'd bring back some of those artists that had recorded you okay letting you know yeah Waylon and some of those people probably yeah but anyway buddy Knox was a guest and that my singing partner Robert Linville was still living at that time and he was part of the music festival and when buddy Knox got here he walked up and stuck his hand out to Robert and said I just wanted to personally thank you for helping make me a millionaire wow that because we did a song with buddy Knox cause somebody touched me and we also did another one that was entitled I think I'm gonna kill myself that's not very nice anyway both of those went very high in the charts in fact they pulled I think I'm gonna kill myself when it was number 20 oh wow and they did that because they were thinking that it might influence people to write and understand but you know songs were written back in the 50s about your girlfriend or your mother or in overdramatic fashion sometimes you know and and evidently buddy had had a breakup he was running his feelings you know I also think it's kind of interesting that you being a vocalist for Norman petty not only would you have recorded on the songs that you mentioned but you would have probably had to be here quite a bit just in case you decided hey I want you on this so you probably where most all the recordings of everything that was done here most of the time most of them Norman would know in advance you know and he would give us a heads up yeah yeah I've got this session be be available in case I need you and and then - we only live like about a mile maybe a mile and a half west of the studio here is where we rented the house but you know like I said earlier Norman hired us and I've never known that until this day still don't know what what made Norman and by their self to be a staff vocalist we weren't that outstanding fact I don't even read music yeah I can't tell you one note from another I'm kind of like Norman Norman didn't read a rap music either but anyway something there I guess it was our sound because Norman was into sound really really deeply yeah Norman could hear things that we would never think about like on the song every day that buddy in the crickets did little like glockenspiel yeah that's what I mean I'm just telling people that's what it's known for kind of is Norman walk through that door one day and jury was sitting just about where you are slapping his hands and knees Norman asking sir what are you doing he said well I'm just practicing the rhythm of the song we're gonna do today and Norman said let me put Mike on that so he goes into the control room brings a microphone out got a cord training behind them cuz everything had to be courted yeah said it down went back in plug the mic into the control board and listened to it came back out and said don't play the drums just left your hands and knees Norman had never heard the song but something in his mind about that sound and tightened you know he was totally right I can't imagine that song with real drums I mean it's just it it because the song realized so heavily on the beauty of buddy's voice and the songwriting I think even on the song buddy nots the party dog they didn't use any drugs they used a cardboard box and then buddy had one to call it take your time that they use the cardboard box but normally it could feel and hear things that we couldn't if I if it had been me and Jerry talking I would have probably said well okay and then I have a good nothing don't often then whatever I wanted to do you know and not made a second thought about it yeah snapping of the hands and knees but anyway he was he was a great about saying like there we had a lot of good times here in fact we have it on tape where Norman says we were just playing music we haven't defined and the cool thing for me is I get to now take a tour with you we're not gonna film it but you're gonna show me some cool stuff and I'll talk about it afterwards so thank you so much for sharing some of this with the people that couldn't be here and anybody that can make it out to Clovis please come and visit David here so this is the original coca-cola machine from when all of those recording artists would have been here for ten cents a coke and there's still one inside there now this is a thrill this is inside Norman Petty's control room those are all of the well known things that he was proud of that he worked on in here and that is all the original equipment that he put together himself he was a electronical engineer genius and created a sound that you just couldn't match because he put so much of this together himself now this is a showing that Norman loved tubes he used vacuum tubes and that's a big part of his sound now this was kind of one of those cases that had odds and ends including maracas and extra microphones here's Norman with a bunch of his equipment and right there is the same reel-to-reel that we just saw him with as well as the lathe that was in that picture that he would have cut the tracks too and then sent out to make the records now there's of course one of Norman's original record boxes for transporting records and he said take a picture of that because look who's in there on the top twelve right there's Norman petty right above Marty Robbins I thought that was pretty cool and there is Buddy Holly and the crickets being awarded for number one that'll be the day in cashbox here is some of the songs that Norman worked on here with the group maybe baby that'll be the day which are two of my favorites as well as Peggy Sue and he told me when they did Peggy Sue they came in at 4:30 in the morning started writing it and then had it done by like 9:30 and there's the original release of the 45 of that'll be the day that is a classic Macintosh unit that he used to record a lot of stuff's really hard to find and he said the only thing in the studio is not original is that little radio over there that clock radio that we saw there is a tape machine with a microphone on top of it that is a view into the window that you would have seen the artist that Norman would have seen the artist through so that's Buddy Holly would have been right over there where that piano is kind of looking towards Norman there are the tape machines that they would have recorded on and this was one of my favorite parts of today he actually played me some of the unreleased songs that they that he had been sent and was singing along with them and singing along with his parts and the Buddy Holly songs I thought that was great that's the microphone that Norman would have spoken to the artist through the window with that's a view of where Tommy or where Jerry Allison would been playing those drums on his lap you know doing like the the padding with his hands and and he told me he said think of them running the line from in the control room into there across the where the houses next door into the echo chamber and then all the way back with cables before it was a wireless that's a bunch of extra tubes that Norman would have used to replace if anything went out here's the original contract the Buddy Holly and Norman had together and there's both of their signatures on there which I thought was amazing and then he also had a business card of when Buddy Holly was doing a project with Bob Montgomery there you can see it's Western and Bop how about that Holly with an e and that's a business card from buddy's label that he was starting prison records just like he said there's Buddy Holly as president in our interview and then right there is Norman petty listed as sales so he was right on with that now this is great because this is when they were showing me the instrument that they recorded that part in Sugar Shack that boo boo boo boo boo boo boo boo boo Boop so they showed me how to play it and then let me play they actually let me play that same part on there which I thought was great this is a view from the back of inside the studio where all the musicians would have recorded their parts this is looking and if you look to the left you can see the window for the control room right there so that's kind of the view that buddy would have had looking in now the instrument right there in front that little keyboard looking thing that's what you hear that kind of sounds like a glockenspiel on every day Vai was actually playing that and so he showed me that dundun do and played it and I was just going so crazy that he said go ahead I said I can play it and he said yeah so I got to play that same part on there and here he's showing me that they had to hang a microphone from the front of that to record it so it actually would been hanging right there in the center and then this is a view of back there where buddy is that's where Jerry Allison's drums would have been set up that's Norman's chair of course that he would have sat in if he was inside listening and then there's Norman right there playing that same instrument that we just saw now those are some really rare guitars made out of poplar that had a really bright sound that were only made for two years that Norman got ahold of and kept him in the studio forever now this is interesting this is Dion from Dion and the Belmonts on that last winter dance party tour and if you look to the left back there playing drums was Buddy Holly buddy played on that tour now Dion goes out and tells a story that he did a coin toss with the Big Bopper to see who was gonna ride in that plane but I was told that Tommy Allsup vehemently was so mad that Dion kept claiming that he said he would fight beyond any time anywhere because that was actually Tommy Allsup story and I believe it because Buddy was actually trying to fly his band Waylon Tommy and Buddy all to the next city and it just so happened the other guys wanted to come instead because they were sick now this is showing true love ways music on top of the piano and he was telling you that a lot of stories go down that he wrote that from Rio Lena but he said that's not exactly true Vai recorded a version of that song before Buddy he even played it on the jukebox and then he said the story was that Norman actually put on on CD that he said buddy was coming by and said he was going to visit his aunt in the next town over to Clovis dropped off the music and said see if you can put some lyrics to it and we'll turn it into something that was the amplifier that the Roses took out on tour when they went in 1958 with Buddy Holly how about that and then this is a view of from the piano looking back at where Jerry Allison's drums would have been this is a view of where Buddy Holly would have stood in front of those two microphones now this he showed me was pretty crazy he goes it's called music writer and he said this was an old typewriter that you could actually type up sheet music and give it to the musicians on I had never seen one of those before and he said Norman didn't read music but Vai did so Vai was really good with that now this was a wire recorder he said they don't even really have him anymore but they would have actually recorded music right on that little spool in his hands and then I included the clock because that's the original clock so Roy Orbison Waylon Jennings the fireballs Buddy Holly the crates all would have looked at that clock at the wee hours of the morning to find out what time it was that is a view of Norman Petty's organ he was always the organ player and then that is the famous Norva jack microphone ribbon Mike and he said they would have hung that over top of the partition to record the drums they would've hung that inside the drums and then that is the vocal mic so I said buddy Hollywood recorded vocals to that and he said yeah that was that's what buddy would have sang through and then here was something he showed me showing how the band was getting nine thousand dollars for the tour of the crickets and I said look at all the performers like how did they afford to have that many performers how much time did they get and he said if you were a big act you got three songs but if you were the crickets and you weren't that big you only got one at that time one song for a tour for that night now this is a guitar made by Sonny West a custom guitar he was the guy who wrote Raven for Buddy Holly and even signed this rave on and I was told that he actually does these guitars for a living now and sells them out of Abilene Texas so it's kind of cool to see that he's still around doing that now that's just a photo of some of the old equipment back there where Jerry Allison's drums would have been and then this was me standing looking exactly where Buddy Holly would have stood to record his songs and there's me in you know doing a selfie there of course and then this is great he was telling me this was the original ceiling they were all pink tiles and he said they used to call it the pepto-bismol palace and that was until the fire they decided to replace it with a drop ceiling and then this he took me back and said this is the living quarters in there because a lot of the bands that came here and recorded didn't have money to pay for recordings and a motel so they in are they're just obviously Roy Orbison in the teen Kings and so he said that Norman had a place set up so that the bands could actually sleep here so there were a couple of beds back there there's the living quarters there was a full kitchen and and he showed me in the kitchen he said this is a part record player part radio and part reel-to-reel player and I said I never heard of that and he showed me over here that's the reel-to-reel and then he pointed to this thing and said do you know what that is and I said maybe a primitive microwave and he said that's exactly what that is you could watch your food being cooked through that little window and that was a primitive microwave and then I just wanted to end it with showing the roses down there on the bottom left is David what a great guy to give up his time for us today what a great tour so we just wrapped up an amazing tour and I wanted to show you something that I was told during the tour they don't let people go in here because they had a fire at one point and so it's just not safe to have people taking tours up there but they were telling me that's where the echo chamber was that Norman used to use and part of what the echo chamber was made out of was leftover tile from ello Holly and tiles if you remember when I did that Buddy Holly blog I mentioned that buddy's dad owned a tile company and his brothers and he all worked for his dad and when they would have leftover tile from jobs they would bring it here and that's what they used to tile the floor well gang that's gonna do it for today I hope you guys enjoyed this and please if you're anywhere near Clovis please make an appointment come visit this recording studio you cannot get these stories firsthand anywhere else quite like this and it and if you're so inclined and you can't make it here please look them up online and make a donation they were telling me inside that um unfortunately because of things like YouTube and and downloading what keeps this operating his royalties and the original plumbing and the electric and everything in here is all from the 40s and it's just expensive to keep up so every little bit helps we got along so great I've actually been here for like over two hours hanging out talking to these guys and they invited me to come back in September for the Norman petty recording studio reunion the peeps some of the people that are left from those sessions throughout that time will be doing a reunion and we are going to come back for it so thank you all for watching hope you caught the Norman Petty and by museum that we did so there's actually two videos to this Norman petty story please go watch them have a great day and that'll be the day I'll see you tomorrow good bye [Music] [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Daze with Jordan the Lion

Views: 79,161

Keywords: daily vlogger, travel vlogger, urbex, hollywood, travel advice, abandoned, history, tourism, adventures, forgotten, travel, my trip, daze with jordan the lion, jordan the lion, daily vlog, vlog, vlogger, vlogging, lifestyle, film, los angeles, anthony bourdain, tourist, Sugar shack, Norman petty, Recording studio, Roy orbison, Waylon jennings, Party doll, Buddy holly, The crickets, That'll be the day, Rock & roll, The fireballs, Clovis, New mexico, Music, David bigham

Id: 1kaRqkML4dg

Length: 36min 11sec (2171 seconds)

Published: Thu May 30 2019