Profile of Norman Petty on Famous Like Me

Norman Petty (May 25, 1927 - August 15, 1984) was an American musician, songwriter, and pioneer record producer of the Southwest who helped shape modern popular music, including pop and rock.

Born in the small town of Clovis, New Mexico near the Texas border, Norman Petty began playing piano at a young age and while in high school he had a 15-minute show on the local radio. He founded, with his wife "Vi", the "Norman Petty Trio" that toured the Southwest United States and a few northern states. However, he is most famous for his recording studio in Clovis, a town about ten miles west of the Texas border. In his homespun studio, he made 78 and 45 rpm singles for his own musical group and for then unknown Texan singers Roy Orbison, Buddy Knox, Waylon Jennings, and a number of hits for Buddy Holly with whom he is most closely associated. Other hits made at Petty's studio included "Sugar Shack" by Jimmy Gilmer and The Fireballs.

Petty served as Buddy Holly's recording engineer, and also as his manager and co-producer until late 1958. Their split came over differences in Petty's wanting co-writer's credit in Holly's songs, in exchange for his extra efforts in Holly's recordings. After Holly's death, Petty was put in charge of overdubbing unfinished Holly recordings and demos, to add to his recorded output.

Norman Petty died in Lubbock, Texas in 1984. His recording business still existed in the early 2000s, the studio having relocated downtown in 1969. (The original location was restored in later years, and tours made available by appointment.)

This article on a musician is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

This content from Wikipedia is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Norman Petty