Peggy Sue

The sound of the drums in Peggy Sue is no ordinary fill: Jerry Allison, Buddy Holly's drummer, marked them with a paradiddle sequence that producer Norman Petty recorded in Clovis, New Mexico, letting the volume rise and fall in real time. That technical detail, which today sounds like a playful wink, stemmed from a studio decision: Petty used the fader control to create an effect no one had heard before in a rock song. The drums don’t just accompany; they converse with Holly’s guitar, and Joe B. Mauldin’s bass closes the loop with a groove that seems to bounce between the three instruments.

The song was originally titled Cindy Lou, a tribute to Holly’s niece, but the name changed when Jerry Allison insisted on honoring his girlfriend, Peggy Sue Gerron, at a time when their relationship was going through a rough patch. Recorded in two sessions in June and July 1957, Peggy Sue was released as a single on September 20 of that year, with Everyday on the B-side. It reached number three on the Billboard Hot 100 and appeared on Holly’s self-titled 1958 album, a record that marked the end of a creative era before his tragic death. Later, in 1999, the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, and in 2004, Rolling Stone magazine ranked it at number 194 on its list of the 500 greatest songs of all time.