It is one of Buddy Holly’s best-known singles, built on a simple idea and a drum beat you can’t miss. The song moves fast, with Holly’s voice staying calm but urgent. This song is one of those records that feels like it was cut in one take, even if it wasn’t. It hits fast, and it doesn’t waste a second getting to the point.
Holly wrote this about Peggy Sue Gerron, who was dating Holly’s drummer with The Crickets, Jerry Allison. Holly was not involved with Peggy Sue but liked the name for the song. Allison and Peggy Sue eventually got married but divorced nine years later. At first, Holly was going to call this “Cindy Lou.” Jerry Allison asked if the name could be changed as a favor to him. It probably wouldn’t be heard outside of Lubbock, Texas, anyway, and it would really mean some brownie points for Jerry. Buddy had no problem with the name change.
The song peaked at #3 in the US, #6 in the UK, and #4 in Canada. Peggy Sue was written by Buddy Holly, Jerry Allison, and Norman Petty, and originally performed, recorded, and released as a single by Holly in early July of 1957. It started out with a cha-cha beat, but Allison couldn’t get it right. He reverted to a warm-up drill he did with the high school band, and Holly changed the guitar around, and it worked. Buddy wrote a sequel to this song that I covered a few years ago called Peggy Sue Got Married. Peggy Sue passed away in 2018.
A little trivia: On September 8, 2001, 48,000 people in Lubbock, Texas, tried to get into the Guinness Book of World Records by singing this at the Texas Tech-New Mexico football game. Horn-rimmed glasses like Holly used to wear were distributed to get them in the mood. The day before the game is when Holly would have turned 65. From the info I’ve looked up…they did it.
Peggy Sue
If you knew Peggy Sue
Then you’d know why I feel blue without Peggy
My Peggy Sue
Oh well, I love you gal, yes, I love you Peggy Sue
Peggy Sue, Peggy Sue
Oh how my heart yearns for you
Oh Peggy, my Peggy Sue
Oh well, I love you gal, yes, I love you Peggy Sue
Peggy Sue, Peggy Sue
Pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty Peggy Sue
Oh Peggy, my Peggy Sue
Oh well, I love you gal and I need you Peggy Sue
I love you Peggy Sue
With a love so rare and true
Oh Peggy, my Peggy Sue
Well I love you gal, I want you Peggy Sue
Peggy Sue, Peggy Sue
Pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty Peggy Sue
Oh Peggy, my Peggy Sue
Oh well, I love you gal yes I need you Peggy Sue
I love you Peggy Sue
With a love so rare and true
Oh Peggy, my Peggy Sue
Oh well I love you gal, and I want you Peggy Sue
Oh well, I love you gal and I want you Peggy Sue
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Good stuff! I think I saw the real Peggy Sue on a talk show once
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So good!
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Thank you!
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Classic tune…and now I know the backstory as to who Peggy Sue was. I forgot the Texas Tech fans went for that Guinness Record. Apparently, that was part of a four-day symposium in Lubbock honoring Holly’s life. Nice to see a singer so honored years after his passing, Max…like he is here today!
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Classic! ✨
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That’s a great story about the recording and a reminder of how many things were done on the fly back then. I am a pretty big fan so I thought… but I don’t really recall the singing of the song at a football game!
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I didn’t either but I saw it somewhere and looked it up…and they did! Yea I like how the cha cha beat was changed…that might have saved the song.
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One of early rock’s great singles. I met a couple from Lubbock not long ago- they’re still pretty proud of their boy there
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Oh yes…I’ve read where he still huge there.
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One of our blogmates, Barbara, lives there, and she’s shared pics about Buddy. He is a legend who needs to be remembered.
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Barbara at teleportingweena
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An unmistakable beat. I can’t imagine it any other way.
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Yea…I can’t imagine a cha cha beat….
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The man who put Lubbock on the map.
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I must use that line next time when I post Buddy.
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Great song, Max as it was nice hearing this again. Buddy Holly was born Charles Hardin Holley, but his name was misspelled as ‘Holly’ on his first record contract, and he liked it that way. Cindy Lou was Holly’s niece, Cindy Lou Kaiter, the daughter of his sister Pat Holley Kaiter. In the mid-Fifties while Peggy Sue Gerron was still a high school student at Lubbock High she met Holly, well actually their first encounter occurred when Holly was running late for a gig, and he accidentally knocked her over. Peggy Sue said, “He ran over to me, guitar in one hand, amp in the other, and said, ‘I don’t have time to pick you up, but you sure are pretty’, before he ran off”. Another girl helped her pick up her books and told her that was Buddy Holly. Several weeks later, Gerron was on a date with Crickets drummer Jerry Allison, when they ran into Holly and his date. When Holly started laughing, Jerry asked him what was so funny, and he said, “I’ve already overwhelmed your girl.”
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Great story Jim! I saw her interviewed a few times…
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That sounds cool.
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good info, Jim.
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Thanks, Lisa and I wrote a post on this song.
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You’re welcome. Do you want to share the link?
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The beat rules. The chord change on “Pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty Peggy Sue” lends a sense of danger to my ears. Classic song by a great writer.
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Released before I was born but I remember it well. It must have continued to be played on the radio.
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First real rock n roll rebel. Him and Waylon Jennings.
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