Buddy Holly, Norman Petty My Story

      In various discussions I finally put the proverbial "two-and-two" together. Finally, being told that Norman still had a recording studio in town, I decided to go see him. I went to the old recording studio (still there - a museum now) knocked at the door and he answered. I introduced myself - told him I had heard of him and that I wanted to meet him. He invited me in and was kind enough to bring me back to a coffee room. Seeing the the memorabilia on the walls, I knew where I was - finally. We sat and talked for a while - I had records of a Norman Petty Trio - Jazz - and finally connected him to that. He was pleased of course and talked about that for a while. I never got to see the control room. That, of course, would have been the highlight of our meeting.

     I explained to Norman that Pop Echols was a friend of my Uncles and that I had earlier met Pop and thought him to be a great guy (which he was - could talk both arms off and would hardly let you go) and that we had become friends. I told him about our mutual friendship through my uncle and Pop's association. . Norman squirmed in his chair - I still didn't know what I had said - but - quickly he informed me that he had a session to get ready for and had to go.

     I have heard, read many versions of the Norman Petty, Buddy Holly relationship, both good and bad. I have been friends with some that were actually there during that relationship and my summation of it all has to be this:

     I have a recorded cassette from a writer describing being left off the writers credits lists of Buddy Holly songs that he helped write.
Instead, Norman Petty's name seems to appear on it and most all of the early Buddy Holly songs. There has been, reportedly, some accusations from the Holly group that Norman got huge royalties but did little writing. In view of all the evidence, it suggests that perhaps there could have been a similar situation with Pop. I will never know of course, for Norman chose never to speak to me again although our paths crossed many times. He did once more, however. . (Next Page)

     One must give Norman Petty his due. Norman had two important assets of the three in this business arrangement with Buddy Holly, The Fireballs and others that recorded there -

     #A. Norman had the recording facilities which were few and far between in that era - most being custom made (Reference Normans Collins mixing board - Collins® made boards for radio stations - Norman adapted it for recording purposes.) - The equipment manufactured was incompatible, needing expensive transformers to match the impedances between them. There were little if any commercial recording equipment available to the general public. The record labels had the custom recording studios, and they were reserved for their own clientele.

     # B. Norman had the contacts to the music world of that time. It was almost impossible to get into the music business as the big record companies controlled it all and it was all but impossible to break in. It was he that made the trips to sell his product. Norman, Ben Hall and others pioneered the independent recording studios in the western plains. They and a minority of others around the U. S. were responsible for many artist being heard out of the sixties that perhaps might never have been heard of. Certainly the ones out of the bleak Western oilfields.

     Therefore, one must conclude that it is quite possible that the names, Buddy Holly, The Fireballs, The Affection Collection and many others might otherwise not have been known to the music world if it had not been for Norman Petty, or, it would have been years later.

I personally had not seen Norman's studio since I left Clovis in 1980. I had wondered it if had been kept as I had heard from various
reports. The first time I saw it the shrubs you see in the picture at the left and in this picture made in 2007 (BELOW) were small, and I am not sure the one shrub to the left was even there. The area is kept very well now including the NORVAJAK building. There are yearly events where the studio is open to view during certain hours. A recent newspaper clipping. The New Mexico Historical Association presented this historical marker of the Petty and Holly association. One of Holly's brothers was present for this unveiling as well as some of the Fireballs members. If you click on the picture to the left or on the ones below you will see Norman's block. You can see to the right of the studio Nor Va Jak music building. This was his publishing headquarters, however, it has never been established that it was used all that much. Not sure when it was built, but was during the Holly years. Note the side of Normans studio being not very tall. Today's recording studios have very high ceilings for more open sounding recordings. Norman's early recording interests were in the Jazz field where closed, tight recording was the instrument of good sound. That would be the reason for the sound of the early Holly sounds and the Fireball sounds. There was some experimentation with echo reverberation and that might have been on vocals.