“Peggy Sue” was Buddy Holly’s second hit single, reaching the top 10 in the US, Canada, the UK, The Netherlands and Germany. It was Holly’s first hit not credited to his band The Crickets.

The song was originally going to be titled “Cindy Lou”, named after Holly’s baby niece Cindy and his sister Patricia Lou, but Crickets drummer Jerry Allison asked Holly to change the name to impress his then-girlfriend Peggy Sue Gerron.

Holly obliged, but when the recording engineer threatened to change the song back to “Cindy Lou” if Allison didn’t stop making mistakes, he took a few moments to go through a drumming exercise. Holly liked the feel of Allison' drum exercise, changed his guitar licks to better fit with it, and that became the new beat for the song.

Allison married Gerron in 1958. They divorced in 1965.

The song’s legacy includes Rolling Stone naming it the #197 Greatest Song Of All Time, NPR naming it one of the “100 Most Important American Musical Works of the 20th Century” and The Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame honoring it as “one of the most popular and influential Rock classics.”

A sequel to the song was written titled “Peggy Sue Got Married”. It was released five months after Holly’s death.