How an Improvised John Wayne Line in ‘The Searchers’ Changed Rock n' Roll History Forever

I think it's hard to really understand what a grip the Western genre had on America in the 1950s. We've joked that they were basically their superhero movies of the time, but it does kind of feel like all culture revolved around them.

Even rock and roll.

Case in point, in John Ford’s 1956 masterpiece, The Searchers , John Wayne didn't just deliver a great performance; he gave us a line that became a massive catchphrase and accidentally birthed a rock and roll anthem: "That’ll be the day."

Let’s dive in.

• YouTubewww.youtube.com

The Context Behind the Line

If you haven't seen The Searchers lately (or ever), it’s widely considered one of the greatest films ever made.

I actually would prefer you went and watched it rather than kept reading.

It’s a movie that subverted traditional cowboy tropes and gave us a brutal, complicated antihero in Ethan Edwards, played by John Wayne.

He's a Confederate veteran embarking on an obsessive, multi-year quest to find his kidnapped niece.

And she may not want to be found after all.

It’s an incredibly influential film, to the point where Martin Scorsese was heavily inspired by The Searchers when crafting the dark, vigilante-rescue DNA of Taxi Driver.

Throughout the movie, whenever another character suggests that Ethan might fail, give up, or get himself killed, Wayne lowers his voice, gives a look of pure, stubborn defiance, and mutters: "That'll be the day."

It's a badass line that solidified Wayne as one of the greats and became part of the cultural lexicon. __

In the movie, it delivers the theme.

To Ethan Edwards, the idea of him quitting or dying before his mission is done is so completely impossible that the day it happens might as well never exist.

Even when popular opinion is that he should.

Wayne says it four times throughout the movie, and each time, it cements his character as a relentless, immovable force.

• YouTubewww.youtube.com

From the Silver Screen to the Recording Studio

Now, here is where film history takes a wild turn into music history. Welcome to No Music School.

In the summer of 1956, a young, aspiring musician from Lubbock, Texas, named Buddy Holly, went to the local movie theater with his friends. Like many Americans, they watched The Searchers.

Wayne’s delivery of "That’ll be the day" stuck hard in Holly's head.

And then it became the chorus of one of his most famous songs.

The story behind the song's inspiration goes that Holly was waxing about wanting to write a hit song, and then his friend joked, "That'll be the day!"

"That'll Be the Day" by Buddy Holly and The Crickets was recorded in 1957, went straight to number one on the Billboard charts, and effectively changed the landscape of popular music forever.

In fact, that song reached way past Buddy Holly and inspired three young boys from Liverpool.

Yes, before they added Ringo and became The Beatles, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and George Harrison were in a smaller group called The Quarrymen, and the very first song they ever recorded onto a private 78rpm shellac disc in 1958 was a cover of that exact Buddy Holly track.

So in a way...without John Wayne, we wouldn't have the greatest band of all time.

• YouTubewww.youtube.com

Summing It All Up

There's a major lesson to be learned here about dialogue. Sometimes it's not the words on the page, but the specific delivery that weaponizes them.

John Wayne has delivered many iconic lines, but that one helped him change our world in so many ways. And his persona helped iron it into culture, and then that phrase got redefined by Buddy Holly and some of the Beatles.

So, the next time you're writing a script and trying to find the perfect witty retort or character-defining catchphrase, remember The Searchers.

Keep it short and on theme.

Let me know what you think in the comments.