Clear Channel Memo Top Ten: That’ll Be the Day (#5)

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Another day, another “you’ve gotta be KIDDING ME!” entry on my list of favorite songs that were on the Clear Channel Memorandum list of songs that executives thought might be inappropriate to play after 9/11. Oh, you thought it was weird yesterday? Try this one! #5: That’ll Be the Day - The Crickets What, because Buddy Holly died in a plane crash??? The background of this song is tied to a movie: Buddy, his brother, and a couple of musician friends who’d later play in bands with Holly, went to see John Wayne’s classic The Searchers. Duke kept saying “that’ll be the day” in the film, so Buddy decided that’d make a good song! Now, the punch line in this is that, if you peruse the list of songs, you will NOT find Linda Ronstadt’s top 20 rendition from 1976. I mention that because the memorandum did list “Dancing in the Street” three different times, one for each hit rendition. Oh, and the line “this’ll be the day that I die” in “American Pie” is a direct reference to this song. That’ll Be the Day Written by Buddy Holly, Jerry Allison, and Norman Petty Recorded by The Crickets From The “Chirping” Crickets, 1957 When Cupid shot his dart: