Crickets Member Who Wrote ‘I Fought the Law’ Was 88

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame-inducted singer-songwriter Sonny Curtis, who fronted Buddy Holly’s backing band later known as The Crickets and eventually penned and performed the theme song for The Mary Tyler Moore Show, has died at the age of 88.

The news was shared by Curtis’s daughter Sarah, who wrote on Facebook, “I’m heartbroken to tell you that my dad Sonny passed away yesterday after a sudden illness. I’m so grateful that I was with him at the end, along with my mom. It was peaceful and he didn’t suffer.”

She continued, “He was 88 and he lived a more exceptional life than anyone I’d ever met. He made a mark on this world, and he made a mark on the hearts of all who knew him. It’s a sad day, but what a life. May we look at his life with joy rather than sadness. He would have wanted that.”

Born in Meadow, Texas on May 9, 1937 to cotton farmers, Curtis learned to play the guitar at the age of 7, inspired by his musician uncles who formed a bluegrass group called the Mayfield Brothers. A childhood friend of Holly’s, the two began making demo recordings in the mid-50s, a collaboration that led to opening for the likes of Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash and soon spawned early iterations of what would eventually be the rock and roll band whose name inspired The Beatles’s nomenclature. Curtis joined the band a year after Holly officially founded The Crickets in 1957, shortly before Holly’s death in an airplane crash in 1959. Though Curtis was drafted shortly thereafter, he served as both lead guitarist and singer, writing hits “Walk Right Back” (The Everly Brothers), “More Than I Can Say” (Bobby Vee, Leo Sayer) and the seminal “I Fought the Law,” which was immortalized through covers by The Bobby Fuller Four, The Clash and Green Day.

“Of course ‘I Fought The Law’ has turned out to be my most lucrative copyright to date,” he said in an interview. “There have been lots of versions … one by Hank Williams Jr, which I think is actually my favorite version of it … one by Johnny Rodriguez … another by Roy Orbison, one by Kris Kristofferson … the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band did it … Sam Neely has a version … The Clash did it of course!

But Curtis’s most enduring hit was perhaps his own, the 1970 “Love Is All Around,” which he wrote for the groundbreaking CBS sitcom The Mary Tyler Moore Show, which followed a single, independent and career-driven woman working as an associate news producer at a local station in Minneapolis. Emblematic of second-wave feminism, the series earned consistent positive critical and awards appraisal, earning 29 Emmys throughout its seven-season run and cementing itself as among the crème de la crème of TV offerings then and now. Initially, the tone of the hit track was imbued with more anxiety, and Curtis retooled the song to the more uplifting version viewers will recognize today.

After being approached to pen the theme, Curtis jumped on the opportunity and was sent to see co-creator James L. Brooks: “[He] came into this huge empty room, no furniture apart from a phone lying on the floor, and at first, I thought he was rather cold and sort of distant, and he said, ‘We’re not at the stage of picking a song yet, but I’ll listen anyway.’ So I played the song, just me and my guitar, and next thing, he started phoning people, and the room filled up, and then he sent out for a tape recorder. So we taped it, and then got into the negotiating process and eventually, they decided to use it. That’s basically how it all happened,” Curtis recalled.

The song was later covered by a number of artists, including Sammy Davis Jr.’s jazz rendition and a rock ‘n’ roll version by Joan Jett & the Blackhearts.

Curtis was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2012 alongside other members of The Crickets (outside of Holly, who was inducted as part of the inaugural 1986 class). A longtime Nashville resident, the artist was also inducted into the city’s Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1991 and Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum in 2007.

He is survived by his wife of more than 50 years, Louise.