"Peggy Sue " is a rock and roll song written by Buddy Holly, Jerry Allison, and Norman Petty, and originally performed, recorded and released as a single by Buddy Holly and the Crickets in early July of 1957. The song was also released on Buddy Holly's self-titled 1958 album. The song is ranked #194 on the Rolling Stone magazine's list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. The song was originally called "Cindy Lou", and was named for Buddy's niece, the daughter of his sister Pat Holley Kaiter. The title was later changed to "Peggy Sue" in reference to Crickets drummer Jerry Allison's girlfriend (and future wife), Peggy Sue Gerron, with whom he had recently had a temporary breakup. [1] Appropriately, Allison played 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, Norm Petty. Many music critics regard this as Holly's all-time best recording. The song went to #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1957. The modal frame of the song is axial around the tonic, A: The song is currently ranked as the 100th greatest song of all time, as well as the third best song of 1957, by Acclaimed Music. [2]

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Sequel

Holly wrote a poignant sequel called "Peggy Sue Got Married", and recorded a demo or practice version in his New York City apartment on December 5, 1958, accompanied only by himself on guitar. The tape was discovered after his untimely death, and was "enhanced" for commercial release, by adding background vocals and an electric guitar track that drowned out Holly's own playing (and almost his voice as well). The rarely-heard original version was released on a vinyl collection called "The Complete Buddy Holly", and was later used over the opening credits of the 1986 Kathleen Turner film Peggy Sue Got Married .

Legacy

• The Beatles were admirers of Holly and the Crickets. In addition to their straightforward remake of Holly's song "Words of Love", some analysts (Jonathan Cott, page 81), have suggested that one of their early songs, "P.S. I Love You", is a subtle reference to this song. Later, John Lennon would cover the song on his Rock 'n' Roll album in 1975.
• In his song "Old", Paul Simon indicates his age by singing "First time I heard Peggy Sue/I was 12 years old./Russians up in rocket ships /and the war was Cold."
• Julian Cope's 1991 album was called Peggy Suicide .
• In an episode of Quantum Leap ("How the Tess was won"), young Buddy Holly, working as a Texas farm boy, invents the song as a homage to a piglet, calling it Piggy Sooey . Sam Beckett suggests he calls it Peggy Sue instead.
• In blink-182's album Cheshire Cat , one of the songs is named "Peggy Sue". The song is also featured on a live album entitled "The Mark, Tom, and Travis Show: The Enema Strikes Back".
• In Myslovitz's album Milosc w czasach popkultury , one of the songs is named "Peggy Sue nie wyszla za maz" (Peggy Sue did not get married).
• In Almost Famous , the lead guitarist of the fictional band Stillwater, Russell Hammond, begins to sing this song as the plane he and his bandmates are flying in encounters severe turbulence, a reference to Buddy Holly's own death in a plane crash.
• In 2004, the Norwegian band Trashcan Darlings released "Peggy Sue is Dead" on the "Tunes From The Trashcan EP"
• In a Jimmy Neutron episode, the Chinese princess is called Peggy Sue and Sheen is heard saying "Pretty, pretty pretty Peggy Sue"
• In Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction , the waiter Buddy Holly is calling Mia Wallace as Peggy Sue, when taking her order in Jack Rabbit Slim's, a 1950s-themed restaurant staffed by lookalikes of the decade's pop icons..
• In the alternate history novel Back in the USSA , Peggy Sue is the name of a girl the young Holly knows and is attracted to.
• In the Wild Cards novels (another alternate history series), the song retains its original name, "Cindy Lou". In the fifth Wild Cards novel, Down and Dirty , it is explained that in this version of history, Jerry Allison's breakup with Peggy Sue Gerron was permanent, and thus the song's name was never changed.
• In his song "Saputnik", serbian singer Ðorde Balaševic called his old highschool love Peggy Sue, even if he didn't saw her for fifteen years.
• The song is referenced in the Family Guy episode "Ocean's Three and a Half".
• The song is also referenced in a New Zealand children's songwriter named the Minstrel's song; "From Rock, to Roll to Rocket", in the line "Buddy Holly sang Peggy Sue".

Covers

• John Lennon covered the song on his 1975 album Rock 'n' Roll
• Country singer Billy "Crash" Craddock covered the song in 1973 on his album Mr. Country Rock.
• The Beach Boys covered the song on their 1978 "M.I.U. Album". The song was also a hit for them, charting at #59 in the United States.
• Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers have covered the song numerous times in concert.

References

1. Amburn, p78
2. Acclaimed Music Top 3000 songs