Sonny Curtis, a\u00a0vintage rock \u2018n\u2019 roller who wrote\u00a0the raw classic \u201cI Fought the Law\u201d and posed the enduring question \u201cWho can turn the world on with her smile?\u201d as the writer-crooner of the theme song to \u201cThe Mary Tyler Moore Show,\u201d has died at 88.<\/p>\n
Curtis, inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of The Crickets in 2012, died Friday, his wife of more than a half-century, Louise Curtis, confirmed to The Associated Press. His daughter, Sarah Curtis, wrote on his Facebook page that he had been suddenly ill.<\/p>\n
Curtis wrote or co-wrote hundreds of songs, from Keith Whitley\u2019s country smash \u201cI\u2019m No Stranger to the Rain\u201d to the Everly Brothers\u2019 \u201cWalk Right Back,\u201d a personal favorite Curtis completed while in Army basic training. Bing Crosby, Glen Campbell, Bruce Springsteen and the Grateful Dead were among other artists who covered his work.<\/p>\n
Born during the Great Depression to cotton farmers outside of Meadow, Texas, Curtis was a childhood friend of Buddy Holly\u2019s and an active musician in the formative years of rock, whether jamming on guitar with Holly in the mid-1950s or opening for\u00a0Elvis Presley\u00a0when Elvis was still a regional act. Curtis\u2019 songwriting touch also soon emerged: Before he turned 20, he had written the hit \u201cSomeday\u201d for Webb Pierce and \u201cRock Around With Ollie Vee\u201d for Holly.<\/p>\n
Curtis had left Holly\u2019s group, the Crickets, before Holly became a major star. But he returned after\u00a0Holly died in a plane crash\u00a0in 1959 and he was featured the following year on the album \u201cIn Style with the Crickets,\u201d which included \u201cI Fought the Law\u201d (dashed off in a single afternoon, according to Curtis, who would say he had no direct inspiration for the song) and\u00a0the Jerry Allison collaboration\u00a0\u201cMore Than I Can Say,\u201d a hit for Bobby Vee, and later for Leo Sayer.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, it took until 1966 for \u201cI Fought the Law\u201d and its now-immortal refrain \u201cI fought the law \u2014 and the law won\u201d to catch on: The Texas-based Bobby Fuller Four made it a Top 10 song. Over the following decades, it was covered by dozens of artists, from punk (the Clash) to country (Johnny Cash, Nanci Griffith) to Springsteen, Tom Petty and other mainstream rock stars.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s my most important copyright,\u201d Curtis told The Tennessean in 2014.<\/p>\n
Curtis\u2019 other signature song was as uplifting as \u201cI Fought the Law\u201d was resigned. In 1970, he was writing commercial jingles when he came up with the theme for\u00a0a new CBS sitcom starring Moore\u00a0as a single woman hired as a TV producer in Minneapolis. He called the song \u201cLove is All Around,\u201d and used a smooth melody to eventually serve up lyrics as indelible as any in television history:<\/p>\n
\u201cWho can turn the world on with her smile? \/ Who can take a nothing day, and suddenly make it all seem worthwhile? \/ Well it\u2019s you girl, and you should know it \/ With each glance and every little movement you show it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The song\u2019s endurance was sealed by the images it was heard over, especially Moore\u2019s triumphant toss of her hat as Curtis proclaims, \u201cYou\u2019re going to make it after all.\u201d In tribute, other artists began recording it, including Sammy Davis Jr., Joan Jett and the Blackhearts and Minnesota\u2019s H\u00fcsker D\u00fc. A commercial release featuring Curtis came out in 1980 and was a modest success, peaking at No. 29 on Billboard\u2019s country chart.<\/p>\n
Curtis would recall being commissioned by his friend Doug Gilmore, a music industry road manager who had heard the sitcom\u2019s developers were looking for an opening song.<\/p>\n
\u201cNaturally I said yes, and later that morning, he dropped off a four-page format \u2014 you know \u2018Girl from the Midwest, moves to Minneapolis, gets a job in a newsroom, can\u2019t afford her apartment etc.,\u2019 which gave me the flavor of what it was all about,\u201d said Curtis, who soon met with show co-creator (and later Oscar-winning filmmaker)\u00a0James L. Brooks.<\/p>\n
\u201cJames L. Brooks 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 \u2018We\u2019re not at the stage of picking a song yet, but I\u2019ll listen anyway,\u2019\u201d Curtis recalled. \u201cSo 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
Curtis would eventually write two versions: the first used in Season 1, the second and better known for the remaining six seasons. The original words were more tentative, opening with \u201cHow will you make it on your own?\u201d and ending with \u201cYou might just make it after all.\u201d By Season 2, the show was a hit and the lyrics were reworked. The producers had wanted Andy Williams to sing the theme song, but he turned it down and Curtis\u2019 easygoing baritone was heard instead.<\/p>\n
Curtis made a handful of solo albums, including \u201cSonny Curtis\u201d and \u201cSpectrum,\u201d and hit the country Top 20 with the 1981 single \u201cGood Ol\u2019 Girls.\u201d In later years, he continued to play with Allison and other members of the Crickets. The band released several albums, among them \u201cThe Crickets and Their Buddies,\u201d featuring appearances by Eric Clapton, Graham Nash and Phil Everly. One of Curtis\u2019 more notable songs was \u201cThe Real Buddy Holly Story,\u201d a rebuke to the 1978 biopic \u201cThe Buddy Holly Story,\u201d which\u00a0starred Gary Busey.<\/p>\n
Curtis settled in Nashville in the mid-1970s and lived there with his wife, Louise. He was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1991 and, as part of the Crickets, into Nashville\u2019s Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum in 2007. Five years later, he and the Crickets were inducted into the Rock Hall, praised as \u201cthe blueprint for rock and roll bands (that) inspired thousands of kids to start up garage bands around the world.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sonny Curtis, a\u00a0vintage rock \u2018n\u2019 roller who wrote\u00a0the raw classic \u201cI Fought the Law\u201d and posed the enduring question \u201cWho can turn the world on … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2089,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2088","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"yoast_head":"\n