5. 13th Floor Elevators, “I’m Gonna Love You Too”
I’m hesitant to overload this list with cover songs. After all, you won’t want to celebrate Buddy Holly’s birthday after listening to The Fray’s version of “Take Your Time” (because you’ll want to kill yourself). Still, I have to talk about The 13th Floor Elevators. Because The 13th Floor Elevators are what Buddy Holly would’ve sounded like had he been introduced to mescaline, their live version of “I’m Gonna Love You Too” is the only really great Buddy Holly cover there is. Lead singer Roky Erikson beats Holly at his own game with the one-part-croon-two-parts-hiccup vocals, but as always the true star is Tommy Hall and his electric jug. There should definitely be more electric jugs.