ABSTRACT
Mid-June of 1956, Lubbock, Texas. Buddy Holly, Jerry Allison, and Sonny Curtis duck out of the dusty summer heat and into the cool darkness of downtown's Lindsey Theatre to catch an early showing of John Wayne's new blockbuster film, The Searchers. On the rebound from Decca, Buddy Holly looked West, to New Mexico and a small independent studio for whom he had cut some demos in 1955 and early 1956. When Norman Petty tested the waters by shopping the master in New York, the individual most interested turned out to be Bob Thiele, head of Coral Records which, of all things, was a subsidiary of Decca. An album was at this point a clear and obvious necessity, and The Crickets and Norman Petty went about compiling one. Titled 'The 'Chirping' Crickets' the album featured a full color photo of the group, neatly dressed in coats and ties and smiling under a bright blue sky.
