About The Song
In 1957, after Buddy Holly and the Crickets hit number one in America and the UK with “That’ll Be the Day”, they wrote a sweet little song as a favour for Holly’s sister, Pat. She had a daughter named Cindy Lou, and the group penned a ditty of the same name in honour of Holly’s niece.
“Cindy Lou” would probably have been an obscure Crickets B-side or album track — until their drummer, Jerry Allison, arrived at a rehearsal upset. His girlfriend, Peggy Sue Gerron, had dumped him. The band quickly rewrote the lyrics to “Cindy Lou” to try to persuade her to change her mind.
Over a galloping beat, with Allison hitting his tom-toms with notable intensity, “Peggy Sue” was a straightforward, heartfelt pledge of devotion. “If you knew Peggy Sue, then you’d know why I feel blue,” sang Holly, before cutting to the chase: “Well, I love you girl, and I need you, Peggy Sue!”
The band played the song at a gig in California with Gerron in attendance. It didn’t have quite the effect on her that Allison hoped for. “I was so embarrassed I could have died!” she recalled years later in her autobiography, Whatever Happened to Peggy Sue?. The rollicking “Peggy Sue” went top 10 in the US and UK in 1957.
Maybe Gerron came round to it. She soon took Allison back and married him in 1958. Holly even wrote a sequel to celebrate this fact. Alone with his guitar in his New York apartment in December 1958, he recorded “Peggy Sue Got Married” over the same loose strum as the original.
Holly was dead within two months. His tape of “Peggy Sue Got Married” was not discovered until after the fateful February 3 1959 on-tour plane crash (“The day the music died”) that killed him, Richie Valens and the Big Bopper. It was released as a posthumous solo single and The Crickets, who continued to record after Holly’s death, also covered it.
“Peggy Sue Got Married” is a mere footnote in pop history (although, in 1986, it inspired the title of a Kathleen Turner comedy film it also soundtracked). But the original “Peggy Sue” has enjoyed a fine legacy — including being covered by an American star whose big break was a direct result of Buddy Holly’s death.
On the day of the 1959 plane crash, a 15-year-old singer, Bobby Vee, volunteered to fill in for Holly at the Minnesota show he had been due to play. It launched Vee on a career as a US teen idol. In 1962, he joined up with The Crickets to cover “Peggy Sue” on a joint album, Bobby Vee Meets the Crickets.
In the UK, Cliff Richard and the Shadows were Buddy Holly devotees, routinely playing “Peggy Sue” in their live set. Guitarist Hank Marvin’s big glasses were a homage to Holly. On their first US tour, in 1960, Holly’s widow, Maria, was moved to tears by Marvin’s onstage likeness to her late husband.
Video
Lyrics
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