Customer Reviews

Whatever Happened to Peggy Sue?: A Memoir by Buddy Holly's Peggy Sue

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3 star:		(1)
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Run a search on the Lubbock Avananche-Journal's webpage and you'll find the story. As for the tome's literary value, it starts off slow and only modestly engaging with a meandering recount of Peggy Sue's high school days. However, the story quickly picks up steam with her rushed wedding to Crickets drummer Jerry and their double honeymoon to Acapulco with Buddy and Maria Elena. With some shocking revelations and the ever-mounting drama in Peggy Sue and Jerry's marriage, it turns into a genuine page-turner. I devoured the last half of the book in an afternoon. Peggy Sue is a likable and sympathetic character; you'll root for her all the way to the end.

..and now you do. If you're a Buddy Holly fanatic like myself, this is a quick enjoyable read. If I were Jerry Allison or Maria Elena, I wouldn't want this book to come out. Neither individual escape without a severe taint. Allison is portrayed as an immature, self-absorbed, wife cheating, wife beating alcoholic (Peggy Sue was married to him) and Holly's wife, Maria Elena is viewed as a class conscious, coniving, thoroughly unlikeable b@#*ch who didn't even attend her own husband's funeral. Peggy Sue drops a bombshell or two along the way, including Holly's plans to divorce his new bride of a few months. It's an era of black and gold Chevy's, pink Cadillacs, bobby sox and dates that consisted of hamburgers and Cokes. The chapter on the double honeymoon of Peggy Sue & Jerry and Maria Elena & Buddy is alone worth the price of the book. From the sand of West Texas to the glitz & glamour of 1950's New York, this book will transport you back to a time long gone, but whose music still lives on.

Peggy Sue has chosen to tell us what not only happened to her, but why. Yes, the story has it's high points and its lows. Don't we all have our good qualities and those we aren't so proud of? Buddy Holly, Marie Elena, Jerry Allison, and Peggy Sue herself were only human, after all. Her story helps set the record straight.

Marie Elena has a right to protect Buddy's name and reputation, but in doing so to the extreme, she has harmed herself by creating the impression that she is solely out to make money off her late husband's name and image.

Jerry Allison comes off as problematic, also, but given the culture and time he grew up in, it's understandable why he did some of the things he did. We men aren't always of the best character.

In reading her book, I did not get the impression Peggy Sue was relating only the bad in anyone she happened to write about.

Perhaps, Jerry Allison or Marie Elena could write books of their own to relate their experiences in their own words.

Buddy Holly, Norman and Violet Petty, Niki Sullivan and others are gone. They can't tell us their side of the story. Those who are yet with us can. Peggy Sue has taken the time to give us her view of things. If you read "Whatever Happened to Peggy Sue?" you will have a better understanding of some of the individuals who helped shape or worked with Buddy Holly.

Whatever Happened to Peggy Sue? is a warm, straightforward recollection by the lady immortalized in Buddy Holly's classic rock love song. Peggy Sue Gerron's reminiscences about her young adulthood and friendship with the 'young man in a hurry' (as Buddy has become known) is a gentle, loving portrait of their lives and times in Lubbock, Texas in the 1950's. No scalding exposes here regarding Buddy. More troubling, in Peggy Sue's life, is her marriage to Jerry Allison, one of the original Crickets.

Peggy Sue's story contains some revelations--particularly that Buddy was planning to file for divorce of Maria Elena--and gently hints that Peggy Sue was his real love all along. Perhaps so. Maria Elena has achieved a tough-as-nails reputation, even going as far as trying to prevent the publication of this memoir. And, it is widely questioned whether or not she really was pregnant when Buddy was killed in that plane crash.

This book resonates with a sound of truth, and is a gentle look at another side of a man whose life and music impacted -- and directed -- music as knew it back then, as well as today. Immensely personal and highly enjoyable, this book is definitely on the must read list for any fan of Buddy Holly's, as well as Peggy Sue's. I'm so glad she wrote this one!!!

When rock and roll artists sing about women - it's nine times out of ten not actually about one specific woman - but that one time out of ten, one has to wonder who these songs are about and how they inspired the artist. "Whatever Happened to Peggy Sue: A Memoir by Buddy Holly's Peggy Sue" is the story of the famous artist who was taken from the world far too soon and the subject of one his most famous songs - Peggy Sue. She speaks candidly and with total truth about her relationship with Buddy Holly and sets all the rumors and myths surrounding them and their respective spouses to rest. "Whatever Happened to Peggy Sue: A Memoir by Buddy Holly's Peggy Sue" is highly recommended for Buddy Holly fanatics and community library memoir collections with a focus on music.

This an amazingly written, first-hand account of life in the Buddy Holly days, from a totally different perspective than the public had previously been shown. Buddy, as always, shines as the immortal star that he was. I applaud Peggy Sue for her courage to present the inside story. It is a must read for all Buddy Holly fans.

Hmm worth reading, but not that great for die hard buddy holly fans, It's Peggy sue's life, not buddy's, so don't expect the whole book to be about him.. Was a decent read, but something tells me there's probably better BH related books out there..