John Wayne was the inspiration for Buddy Holly hit song covered by The Beatles

In The Searchers, Wayne’s Ethan Edwards repeatedly uses the phrase: “That’ll be the day”. This inspired Holly and Allison to write their son of the same name, which was recorded in 1956 with the Three Tunes. Holly then made a version with the Crickets a year later that became a No 1 hit in the UK and US, so Decca released the original as a single too.

As pointed out by the John Wayne Estate on their official Instagram page: “Many other versions have been recorded. It was the first song recorded (as a demonstration disc) by The Quarrymen, a skiffle group from Liverpool that evolved into The Beatles.”

The John Wayne estate added: “The 1957 recording was certified gold (for over a million US sales) by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in 1969. It was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1998.

“It was placed in the National Recording Registry, a list of sound recordings that ‘are culturally, historically, or aesthetically important, and/or inform or reflect life in the United States’, in 2005.”