The Clovis Sound

During the late 1950s and 1960s the little High Plains town of Clovis, New Mexico became "the music recording center of the universe." Some of the greatest names in music came to the Norman Petty Studios in Clovis to record songs that would reach the top of music charts in the U.S. and England.
A PBS documentary shown June 4 on New Mexico's three PBS stations highlighted some of those recording stars such as Buddy Holly, Roy Orbison, the Fireballs and Buddy Knox, all of whom made Clovis famous in those early days of rock and roll and "rockabilly". This music would become known as "The Clovis Sound" and put Clovis on the music world map. Decades later that little girl with the heavenly voice, LeAnn Rimes, would step to the same microphone as those previous stars and record her "Blue" and other popular songs.
The focus of the documentary is recording producer Norman Petty who brought all that young talent to Clovis. But Petty never claimed credit for the success of these musicians. He said he only offered a stage for them to perform their magic.
The documentary shows film of these musicians both in Clovis and on world stages. It shows musical groups who were inspired by Holly, such as the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Beach Boys and Bobby Dylan. Also included are those still painful-to-see photos of plane wreckage outside Clear Lake, Iowa in 1959 on "The Day The Music Died" with the death of 22-year-old Buddy Holly, along with "The Big Bopper" Richardson and Ritchie Valens. Wayland Jennings missed being on that crowded flight when he "lost" a coin flip to Valens and had to take a bus to the next concert.
For those of you living outside New Mexico the documentary will be made available to PBS stations around the country. The show is titled Norman Petty Studios. I hope you get to see it.