Last night, The Replacements appeared on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon and performed the song “Alex Chilton” from their classic album Pleased To Meet Me (1987). The band features featuring founding members Paul Westerberg and Tommy Stinson with Josh Freese (drums) and David Minehan (guitar).
The Replacements, who recently launched a reunion tour, have not toured since 1991 so it was cool to see the great band playing together again. The performance on NBC on a show hosted by a Saturday Night Live alum is especially sweet considering that the band had been banned from the network’s Saturday Night Live show in 1986 after appearing drunk and destroying a dressing room.
Reportedly, Fallon’s late-night show had been working for nearly a year to get “The Mats” to appear. [2024 Update: Unfortunately, the video is currently not available.]
The song “Alex Chilton” is a tribute to the leader of the band Big Star. To listen to a whole concert from the reunited Replacements, check out this story.
What is your favorite song by The Replacements? Leave your two cents in the comments.
On September 7, 1936, Charles Harden Holley was born in Lubbock, Texas. Through various circumstances, though, young Charles would drop the “e” in his last name and become known as “Buddy Holly.”
Regarding the first name, after the baby was born, the family soon began calling the child “Buddy.” And the name stuck.
Regarding the spelling of his last name, while young Buddy was a rising musician, Decca Records mistakenly spelled his last name as “Holly.” The singer decided to keep the new spelling, thus completing the final piece of the name of one of the greatest rock and roll talents in history.
The Original Release of “Peggy Sue Got Married”
In a previous post, Chimesfreedom examined the circumstances of Buddy Holly’s death, but the world did not hear some of his great songs until after his death. For example, “Peggy Sue Got Married,” was released after he died at the young age of 22 on February 3, 1959.
A little more than five months after Holly’s death, Coral Records on July 20, 1959 released “Peggy Sue Got Married.” It appeared as a B-side to Buddy Holly’s “Crying, Waiting, Hoping.”
“Peggy Sue Got Married” was a the sequel to Holly’s hit “Peggy Sue.” The original hit was named after the girlfriend of Crickets drummer Jerry Allison.
You probably have heard this recording of the sequel song. The recording of “Peggy Sue Got Married” that most of us know features backup vocals and instrumentals recorded in June 1959 after Holly’s death.
The Version Buddy Holly Knew (as a Demo)
Because Buddy Holly had died in February of 1959, however, he never heard this version that we know so well.
The record company created the record using a demo that Holly had recorded himself. The demo features Holly with his guitar in his New York apartment in December 1958 before Holly left for his final tour. Below, you may hear the recorded version that Holly knew below.
I love the song in both versions, despite the fact that the original release was not completely the work of Holly. I have always wondered what Holly might have done with the finished product of the song, although the record company did try to stay true to his “sound.”
The Crickets Version
Buddy Holly’s band, The Crickets, later made their own version of the song. They sped up the song in their recording, which features David Box on vocals.
The Crickets version is not bad, but of course it pales in comparison to the Holly versions. Check it out.
The Tribute Version with The Hollies and Holly
Finally, for a 1993 Buddy Holly tribute album, Not Fade Away: Remembering Buddy Holly, the English rock group The Hollies re-recorded “Peggy Sue Got Married.” Instead of adding new vocals, though, they used Buddy Holly’s original vocals.
While some may be critical of the re-use of Holly’s vocals, remember that the original record did the same thing. And what better tribute than a re-working of the song by a band that named itself after Buddy Holly? Check it out.
Rarely has one set of vocals created so many versions. And that is not even mentioning that the song also inspired a 1986 movie of the same name. The movie Peggy Sue Got Married used the demo version of the song over the opening.
In case you are wondering about whether the real “Peggy Sue” got married, the original “Peggy Sue” song helped Jerry Allison get back together with his girlfriend who had inspired the song’s name. And Peggy Sue Gerron did get married to Allison.
But, unlike like Holly’s song, the marriage did not last, as Peggy Sue and Jerry divorced in 1967 after eight years of marriage.
What is your favorite version of “Peggy Sue Got Married”? Leave your two cents in the comments.
In 2013, while everyone was dancing to Pharrell Williams’s song “Happy” from Despicable Me 2 (2013), another artist quietly released a song with the same name. Singer-songwriter John Fullbright’s “Happy” may not be quite as upbeat and instantly memorable as Williams’s song of the same name, but it is an outstanding song you should check out.
This “Happy” begins with just Fullbright and an acoustic guitar, and while he struggles to find happiness, you sense that happiness is not so easy to find.
Tonight I’d rather think of you, and try to close my eyes, and I’ll just wonder what’s so bad about happy?
“Happy” appeared on the album Songs (2013), an album that got great reviews. The Okahoma=born Fullbright brings an honesty to his songwriting, so it is not surprising that he counts Townes Van Zandt as one of his influences. We have featured a few of Fullbright’s songs in other Chimesfreedom posts, and we expect we will be inspired to do so again. But for now, we are just whistling his song, “Happy.”
What do you think of Fullbright’s “Happy”? Leave your two cents in the comments.
Sam Smith’s recent hit “Stay With Me” has such a timeless sound that I am repeatedly forgetting that it is a new song and has not been around for decades. Smith recently used his unique voice to reinterpret Whitney Houston’s 1985 hit song, “How Will I Know.”
“How Will I Know” — written by George Merrill, Shannon Rubicam, Narada Michael Walden — appeared on Houston’s debut album, Whitney Houston (1085) after Janet Jackson had turned down the opportunity to record it. While Houston’s wonderful version is uplifting, Smith takes an aching soulful approach, giving the song a different meaning. Check it out.
What is your favorite Sam Smith song? Leave your two cents in the comments.
In this new video from the Weekly Feed, country singer-songwriter Dwight Yoakam discusses acting, country music, and his next CD. Yoakam explains to interviewer Kyle Meredith how he came to sing a Creedance Clearwater Revival song recently as a character on CBS’s Under The Dome.
In the video, Yoakam also explains why when he does cover songs, he usually tries to avoid iconic recordings. Other topics include Yoakam’s thoughts on David Bowie, Buck Owens, T-Rex, and the state of the music industry.
Yoakam is one of the more intelligent artists around and he has a great understanding of history. So it is always enlightening to hear him talk about various subjects. Check out this interview from the WFPK studios in Louisville, Kentucky.
Below is the clip from Under the Dome that he discusses, where his character sits in jail and sings “Who’ll Stop the Rain.”
If all that leaves you wanting more Yoakam, below is the song he mentions at the end of the interview, “A Heart Like Mine,” from his 3 Pears (2012) CD. The song was co-produced by Beck.
What is your favorite Dwight Yoakam song? Leave your two cents in the comments.
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(2013), an album that got 
(2012) CD. The song was co-produced by Beck.