J.I. Allison

Jerry Allison
Buddy Holly and the Crickets in 1958 (top to bottom): Allison, Holly and Joe B. Mauldin
Background information
Birth name	Jerry Ivan Allison
Born	(1939-08-31) August 31, 1939 (age 77) Hillsboro, Texas
Genres	Rock and roll, rockabilly
Occupation(s)	musician
Instruments	Drums, percussion, vocals, guitar
Associated acts	The Crickets

Jerry Ivan Allison (born August 31, 1939) is an American musician, best known as the drummer for the Crickets and co-writer of their hits "That'll Be the Day" and "Peggy Sue", recorded with Buddy Holly.

Allison's first professional recording was "Who's Gonna Be the Next One Honey", released as a 45-rpm disc (now very rare) by a local group, Hal Goodson and the Raiders. It was also performed at the Norman Petty studio in Clovis, New Mexico, about six months before "Peggy Sue" was recorded. In their early days at the Lubbock Youth Center, in Lubbock, Texas, Allison's drumming was the sole accompaniment to Buddy Holly's vocals and guitar, allowing Holly to perform some of his best guitar work.

Over time, Allison's rhythm backup ranged from slapping his hands on his knees or clapping his hands to a modal plainness of cymbal drumming. His snappy cracks at the snare drum gave power to the songs released under the Crickets' name. Later songs, released under Holly's name, were softer in tone and filled with innocence and longing. On these, Allison played only tom-toms, in keeping with the sound of the vocals. His work on the Crickets' recordings gave the records much of their distinctiveness and has influenced subsequent generations of rock-and-roll drummers.

The recording producer Norman Petty, who was also Holly's manager, often manipulated songwriting credits. Allison, who was credited with another song to which he contributed little, helped to compose the music for some of the famous songs, notably "That'll Be the Day" and "Peggy Sue" (Allison later married Peggy Sue Gerron, after whom the song was named, who in her biography quoted Allison saying he did not write it—"Buddy did"). Holly had recorded "That'll Be the Day" before he started working with Petty, so the inclusion of Petty's name in the songwriting credit for the later version by the Crickets illustrates the manipulation of the credits. Allison has referred in several published interviews to his role in composing "Not Fade Away", which was credited to Norman Petty and "Charles Hardin" (Holly's first and middle names—he was born Charles Hardin Holley [sic]).