The Buddy Holly Song John Lennon Remembers Better Than His Own Songs
While Buddy Holly’s music career was tragically short, he still significantly impacted the most successful musical act ever, The Beatles. The Beatles considered him a rock hero and paid tribute to the singer by covering many of his songs. John Lennon was a fan of Buddy Holly and once said he remembered one of his songs better than his own.
John Lennon recorded an album of classic rock songs that he knew better than his own work
In 1975, John Lennon released Rock ‘n’ Roll, his sixth solo album and the final album he recorded during his “Lost Weekend”. The album consisted of covers of some of Lennon’s favorite rock songs, including “You Can’t Catch Me” by Chuck Berry, “Slippin’ and Slidin’” by Little Richard, and “Stand By Me” by Ben. E. King.
Speaking with David Sheff during his 1980 Playboy interview, Lennon explained why he wanted to record an album of covers. The former Beatle said it was an easy album to record since he remembered these songs better than his own stuff.
“I remember the old rock songs better than I remember my own songs,” Lennon admitted. “If I sat down in a room and just started playing, if I had a guitar now and we were just hanging out singing, I would sing all the early and mid-’50s stuff — Buddy Holly and all. I remember those. I don’t remember the chords or the lyrics or anything of the Beatles’ stuff. So my repertoire is that. I still go back to the stuff The Beatles performed before they wrote, you see. I would still enjoy doing it.”
John Lennon said he knew the Buddy Holly song ‘Peggy Sue’ ‘backwards’
Another song from Rock ‘n’ Roll is “Peggy Sue”, originally recorded by Buddy Holly. John Lennon had covered Holly songs before, as The Beatles covered “Words of Love” for their Beatles for Sale album. Lennon told Sheff he chose “Peggy Sue” for his cover album because it’s a song he “knew backwards.”
“So the last five or six tracks—which sound completely different if you ever check the album out — were all done in about four days, you know,” Lennon shared. “Two a night, like ‘Peggy Sue’ and others I really knew backwards. It cost a fortune in time and energy, and it was the most expensive album I ever made.”
Holly had a significant influence on The Beatles’ careers
Many early rock stars, including Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley, and Buddy Holly, influenced the Beatles. The fab four were impressed by Holly because he wrote and performed many of his own songs, something not many artists did at the time. In an interview with Barnes & Noble, McCartney explained that The Beatles gravitated toward Holly because he would sing the music he wrote and play an instrument while doing so.
“We didn’t know people didn’t write their own things,” McCartney recalled. “And so we’d get a record, and we would discover the people who did. Little Richard always had credit on his things, Buddy Holly was pretty much on everything that he performed. And so when we saw him, we liked that he’d written it, that he was singing it, and that he was playing guitar because a lot of other people just stood there without an instrument. So it became very much something for us to emulate.”
Holly also influenced how The Beatles presented themselves on stage, including a specific fashion choice used by Lennon.
“The other thing was John loved the fact that he wore glasses because John wore glasses but always took them off if he thought there were girls around or, you know, if he wanted to look good,” McCartney added. “So when Buddy Holly came with glasses, John put them on proudly. But yeah, Buddy was a big influence.”
