{"id":159073,"date":"2025-09-21T11:08:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-21T11:08:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/159073\/"},"modified":"2025-09-21T11:08:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-21T11:08:07","slug":"sonny-curtis-crickets-member-who-wrote-i-fought-the-law-dead-at-88","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/159073\/","title":{"rendered":"Sonny Curtis, Crickets Member Who Wrote ‘I Fought the Law,’ Dead at 88"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tSonny Curtis<\/a>, a one-time member of Buddy Holly<\/a>\u2019s backing band the Crickets who later penned and performed the hit theme song to The Mary Tyler Moore Show<\/a>, has died at the age of 88.<\/p>\n

\n\tCurtis\u2019 daughter Sarah confirmed her father\u2019s death Saturday on social media<\/a>. \u201cI\u2019m heartbroken to tell you that my dad Sonny passed away yesterday after a sudden illness. I\u2019m so grateful that I was with him at the end, along with my mom. It was peaceful and he didn\u2019t suffer,\u201d Sarah Curtis wrote.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cHe was 88 and he lived a more exceptional life than anyone I\u2019d ever met. He made a mark on this world, and he made a mark on the hearts of all who knew him. It\u2019s a sad day, but what a life. May we look at his life with joy rather than sadness. He would have wanted that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Meadow, Texas-born Curtis first played alongside Holly in the mid-1950s before that singer formed the Crickets in 1957; Curtis joined the Crickets \u2014 now its own entity in addition to backing Holly \u2014 in 1958, just months before Holly\u2019s death in February 1959. Curtis remained with the Crickets as lead guitarist in the years after Holly\u2019s death, and soon assumed the role of lead singer as well in the band.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tIt was with the Crickets that Curtis penned perhaps his most enduring rock song: \u201cI Fought the Law,\u201d which the Crickets first released in 1960. The song was later popularized by the Bobby Fuller Four \u2014 who transformed the track into a Top 10 hit \u2014 and eventually immortalized by the Clash, who recorded their punk rock take in 1979. \u201cI Fought the Law\u201d was later named to Rolling Stone\u2019s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time<\/a> list.<\/p>\n

\n\tCurtis would also pen hit singles for the Everly Brothers (\u201cWalk Right Back\u201d), Leo Sayer (\u201cMore Than I Can Say\u201d), Keith Whitley (\u201cI\u2019m No Stranger to the Rain\u201d), and Glen Campbell (\u201cThe Straight Life\u201d), but he reserved his biggest song for himself when he recorded \u201cLove Is All Around\u201d in 1970. The track would eventually serve as the theme song for The Mary Tyler Moore Show for seven seasons.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWho can turn the world on with her smile? \/ Who can take a nothing day, and suddenly make it all seem worthwhile?\u201d Curtis sang on the track. \u201cWell it\u2019s you girl, and you should know it \/ With each glance and every little movement you show it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n

\n\tDuring the span of the sitcom, Curtis recorded and released several versions of the track, while artists like Joan Jett and Husker Du also performed renditions of the hit theme songs.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn 2012, Curtis was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame alongside other members of the Crickets. A Nashville resident for the latter half of his life, Curtis was also inducted into the city\u2019s Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1991 and Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum in 2007.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sonny Curtis, a one-time member of Buddy Holly\u2019s backing band the Crickets who later penned and performed the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":159074,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[8374,83053,49,48,75,19037,2385,83054,83055],"class_list":["post-159073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-buddy-holly","tag-buddy-holly-and-the-crickets","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entertainment","tag-obit","tag-obituary","tag-sonny-curtis","tag-the-mary-tyler-moore-show"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=159073"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159073\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/159074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=159073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=159073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=159073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}