This feature appears courtesy of, and is approved by The Norman Petty Estate - Clovis, NM


Studio tours are available year round by APPOINTMENT ONLY by contacting:
Kenneth Broad
Box 926
Clovis NM  88101
E-MAIL

We would like to clarify also, that there are no longer
recording sessions at the "studio" - do not call for session info!

Please make sure to call approx. 1 month in advance

Norman began playing piano when he was 5, and as a young teenager organized his first group,
“The Torchy Swingsters”. To improve their performance,
he recorded their shows for play-back practice, thus beginning his real interest in recording.

Returning from military service in 1946, Norman resumed a job as staff announcer for KICA Radio in Clovis, NM.
However, music wasn’t his only love, his high school sweetheart, Violet Brady,
was home from college and their romance turned into a summer wedding on June 20th, 1948.

In December of 1948, he recruited his bride to play piano & Jack Vaughn on guitar.
The trio, called The Three Musical Tones became the Norman Petty Trio.
They soon landed a recording contract with ABC-Paramount Records
and were voted Most Promising Group of 1954 by Cashbox magazine.


By 1956, their major hit “Mood Indigo” had sold half a million copies and enabled
Norman to expand the studio to how it is today.
In 1957, their song “Almost Paradise” hit #18 & Norman won his first BMI writers award.

By 1956, a frustrated Buddy Holly first came by the studio.
Buddy Knox, Roy Orbison, The Fireballs, String-A-Longs,
and countless others helped make Norman Petty one of the first independent
producers of rock & roll, and one of its most successful.

Norman & Vi played on several of Buddy’s recordings,
with Norman also receiving co-writing credit for many of Buddy & The Crickets’ hits.
He managed the group until the early 60s; The Crickets were signed to Liberty Records,
and Norman got busy with The Fireballs & String-A-Longs,
who recorded the smash hit “Wheels”, and earned another BMI Writers Award for Norman.

Norman continued recording all styles of groups throughout the 60s & 70s,
all with an unmistakable sound of its own.
He was working on a new Buddy overdub project when he succumbed to leukemia in 1984 at age 57.
Coincidentally, Jack Vaughn, guitarist of the Petty Trio, died the same year.
Vi Petty passed away in March, 1992.

"Norman & Vi Petty Music Festivals" took place until 2000,
when organizer Robert Linville of The Roses
passed away and a Festival under the "Petty" name was discontinued.

In 2005 the Clovis Chamber successfully revived the "Clovis Music Festival",
with hopes of having the event in early September on a yearly basis.




The main studio was built in 1953, Norman had been recording in his up-stairs apartment since 1948.


The Petty's publishing company "Norvajak", derived its name from
Nor(man), Va(Violet Anne), and Jak(Jack Vaughan)

This is the building West of the main studio, which was at one time the Petty's apartment,
as well as housing the famous "tiled room" in the back.
The Holley brothers of Lubbock, TX laid this tile in the mid 50s,
which would later be used as a reverb room on Buddy Holley's "Peggy Sue" recording.


Vi Petty in the upstairs apartment writing the arrangement
for a song with the help of "Speedy", their pet chihauhau.


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