Exclusive Stream: Paul McCartney Wails on Buddy Holly's 'It's So Easy'

Buddy Holly was one of the Beatles' biggest influences, a pioneer whose simple tunes and insane two-year hot streak inspired John Lennon and Paul McCartney to start writing their own songs. So it's no shock McCartney contributed to Rave On, a giant sundae of a Holly tribute album (featuring the Black Keys, Kid Rock and others) due out June 28th. What's surprising is how awesomely batshit his performance is. Over bar-band chug-a-lug, with scruffy guitars egging him on, he yowls through "It's So Easy" like he popped some Viagra, then set his pants on fire. Things get truly odd around the three-minute mark: The music stops while he launches into a bizarro jive-rap about how he's gonna hit the town with his lady. The chorus kicks back in, then McCartney delivers an even odder rap: "By 'bout half past nine, we're gonna be down by the old juke joint, man, we're gonna be playin' them records, we're gonna be dancin', man, we're gonna have such fun." True, that.

Click to listen to Paul McCartney singing Buddy Holly's 'It's So Easy'

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Song Stories

“Push It”

Salt-N-Pepa | 1987

Originating as a B side to their cover of the Stax classic “Tramp,” Cheryl “Salt” James, Sandi “Pepa” Denton and Dee Dee “DJ Spinderella” Roper came up with the goods on this career-making, Grammy-nominated platinum single about working it on the dancefloor. “Push It” has been sampled and spliced to death since it debuted in 1987, yet the original track is as fresh and fly as when SNP — among the few original women of hip-hop — debuted it. “Most men will never believe ‘Push It’ was never about sex,” said James. “And that’s why the record went to Number One,” said Denton. “Everybody thought it was about sex.”

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