Sonny Curtis, Prolific Songwriter, Dies at 88

Monday, September 22, 2025

A prolific singer and songwriter who got his start with Buddy Holly, he wrote "I Fought the Law," "Walk Right Back" the "Mary Tyler Moore" theme and hundreds of other songs.

Posted by Doc_Sarvis at 08:27 AM | 3 COMMENTS | permalink

Sonny Curtis was born in Meadow, Texas, on May 9, 1937, to Arthur and Violet (Moore) Curtis. He was the second youngest of six children.

"I was born in a dugout," he said in an interview with The Austin Chronicle in 2004. "My dad dug a hole in the ground, put a corrugated tin roof on top of it, and that's where I was born. I beat my sister ahead of me. She was born in a tent."

Sonny's uncles had a bluegrass band and helped teach him to play the guitar when he was 4.

Working on his family farm gave him ample opportunity to dream up songs.

"Driving a tractor," he told "CBS Sunday Morning," "you go down half a mile that way, and when you get there you turn around and come back a half mile this way. You have plenty of time to write a song."

Comments

The Bobby Fuller Four, Hank Williams Jr., Roy Orbison, Bruce Springsteen and the Clash were among the many acts that covered "I Fought the Law," with its memorable refrain, "I fought the law and the law won."

"The song came quick," Mr. Curtis said in an interview with the International Songwriters Association. "It was one of those West Texas afternoons where the sand was blowing, those days you have in the spring. Probably March 1958. I wrote it in 15 minutes " bam! If you listen to it, you can tell you don't have to be a rocket scientist to write those lyrics."

But you wrote them, and so many others. For which, a pile of thanks and a lifetime of memories. RIP.

#1 | Posted by Doc_Sarvis at 2025-09-22 08:31 AM