Peggy Sue (song)

Peggy Sue (song)

"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 in early July of 1957. The Crickets are not mentioned on the single (Coral 9-61885) but both Joe B. Mauldin (string bass) and Jerry Allison (drums) are known to be featured on the recording. The song was also released on Buddy Holly's self-titled 1958 album. The song is ranked #194 on the Rolling Stone magazine's 2004 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.

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 Top 100 chart in 1957. 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.

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.

In 1999, National Public Radio (NPR) included "Peggy Sue" on the NPR 100, a list of "The 100 most important American musical works of the 20th century".