Peggy Sue

Song facts

From Wikipedia:

“Peggy Sue” is a rock and roll song written by Jerry Allison and Norman Petty (according to the official record, though Buddy Holly is known to be a principal songwriter too), and recorded and released as a single by Buddy Holly on September 20, 1957. The Crickets are not mentioned on label of the single (Coral 9-61885), but band members Joe B. Mauldin (string bass) and Jerry Allison (drums) played on the recording. This recording was also released on Holly’s eponymous 1958 album.

Production

The song was originally entitled “Cindy Lou”, after Holly’s niece, the daughter of his sister Pat Holley Kaiter. The title was later changed to “Peggy Sue” in reference to Peggy Sue Gerron (1940–2018), the girlfriend (and future wife) of Jerry Allison, the drummer for the Crickets, after the couple had temporarily broken up.

In her memoir, Whatever Happened to Peggy Sue?, Gerron stated that she first heard the song at a live performance at the Sacramento Memorial Auditorium in 1957, and that she was “so embarrassed, I could have died.”

Appropriately, Allison had a prominent role in the production of the song, playing paradiddles on the drums throughout the song, the drums’ sound rhythmically fading in and out as a result of real-time engineering techniques by the producer, Norman Petty. Joe B. Mauldin (string bass) also played on the recording.

Initially, only Allison and Petty were listed as the song’s authors. At Allison’s insistence, Holly was credited as a co-writer after his death.

Reception

“Peggy Sue” went to number three on the Billboard Top 100 chart in 1957.

It is ranked number 194 on Rolling Stone magazine’s 2004 list of the “500 Greatest Songs of All Time.”[citation needed] In 1999, National Public Radio (NPR) included the song on the NPR 100, a list of the “100 Most Important American Musical Works of the 20th Century.” The song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum included the song on its list of the “Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll.” […]

Last updated on April 18, 2024