This was written by Sonny West, Bill Tilghman and Norman Petty, inspired by a line from Carl Perkins’s 1956 song Dixie Fried. It was first released by West in February 1958 but did not achieve success.
Later that year Buddy Holly recorded it and took it to No 37 in the US and No 5 in Britain. It was one of six hits he had in 1958. It is ranked 154 on Rolling Stone’s 2004 list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.