Almost sued, in this case, with a clever ending…
In 1956, Buddy Holly and drummer Jerry Allison composed their breakout hit song “That’ll Be The Day,” and Buddy jumped at the opportunity to record it in a real Nashville studio for industry giant Decca Records.
^^^ Alas, the Nashville sessions were badly produced and arranged with an in-house band, and Buddy hated the results. Decca hated the sessions, too, and chose not to publish any of it.
The botched Nashville sessions (including That’ll Be The Day) were locked away in the Decca vaults, dead on arrival.
Buddy urgently wanted to re-record TBTD and release it on another label where he had more creative control (because he believed TBTD would be a smash-hit if done the correct way).
However, young Buddy had signed a 5-year contract with Decca, and that huge label now owned the rights to TBTD. The hostile vice president of Decca personally warned Buddy don’t even try to release the song with another label, or it would mean a career-ending lawsuit.
So…Buddy went straight back to a small studio in New Mexico and recorded the perfect, definitive version of TBTD, then took the finished product to Brunswick Records for release. Brunswick realized it was a solid hit song and immediately published it, to worldwide acclaim.
When Decca saw the song quickly climbing the charts, they were furious and ready to sue Buddy Holly to death. But they couldn’t.
Why?
Because 20-year-old Buddy Holly cleverly schemed to release the song on Brunswick, which was a subsidiary of Decca.
If Decca sued, it would be suing itself for a song that was making a fortune for Decca.
Buddy’s version of That’ll Be The Day was his first gold record and was a win-win for eveybody.