I was alive the day the music died,
but I didn’t start listening to the kind of music that Frank Sinatra called “the most brutal, ugly, degenerate, vicious form of
expression it has been my displeasure to hear.” Sinatra was referring to the
kind of music that Buddy Holly played. I was listening to that kind of music
when Don MacLean came up with American Pie.
Although Buddy Holly didn’t single-handedly invent rock and roll, there
are many, many musicians who credit him with being one of the most influential
people in shaping rock and roll. One of his bandmates recalls that from the day
after they opened for Elvis, they transformed their musical style from country
to rock. When Holly’s band, the Crickets, chose their name, apparently bugs
were in fashion for band names and there were a lot of crickets in the part of
Texas they came from. One source says that they considered “the Beetles” but
passed on that choice.
Peggy Sue was originally titled Cindy Lou for two of the women in
Buddy’s life, but the name was changed following a bet with drummer Jerry
Allison, whose girlfriend was named Peggy Sue. The Crickets were one of the
first bands to have 2 guitars, a bass player (Joe Mauldin) and drums. In this
clip, they are down to three: in fact, rhythm guitarist Niki Sullivan left the
band after a year or so.
