“Sonny Curtis was a gentle, humble man who wrote extraordinary songs. Growing up picking cotton in West Texas, he latched onto music as a way out. Along the way, he formed a bond with local kid Buddy Holly. When Buddy died, Sonny lost a dear friend, yet somehow found his calling, writing indelible hits like ‘Walk Right Back’ for the Everly Brothers, ‘I’m No Stranger to the Rain’ for Keith Whitley, ‘I Fought the Law’ recorded by more than 100 artists, and a little TV song called ‘Love Is All Around’ that started ‘How will you make it on your own.’ A page ripped from Sonny’s own wonderful, self-made life.”

—Kyle Young, CEO
Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum

About Sonny Curtis

Sonny Curtis, who died September 19 at age eighty-eight, wrote several songs that will stand as American standards. Remarkable for their wide-ranging variety, Curtis’s classics include “I Fought the Law,” recorded first by the Crickets and made famous by the Bobby Fuller Four and the Clash; “Walk Right Back” by the Everly Brothers and Anne Murray;  “More Than I Can Say,” written with J. I. Allison and recorded by the Crickets, Bobby Vee, and Leo Sayer; “Love Is All Around,” best known as performed by Curtis as the theme song for “The Mary Tyler Moore Show”; and “I’m No Stranger to the Rain” by Keith Whitley.

Underscoring the scope of his musical talents, Curtis was elected to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, and the Musicians Hall of Fame.

“I Fought the Law,” written in fifteen minutes, made the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame’s 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time selected by “Rolling Stone” magazine. “Love Is All Around,” written within two hours of Curtis reading a four-page synopsis of the storyline of “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” is frequently listed among the all-time great TV theme songs; the closing line, “You might just make it after all,” became part of the American pop-culture lexicon. “I’m No Stranger to the Rain,” written with Ron Hellard, was named Single of the Year by the Country Music Association in 1989.

Curtis grew up on a cotton farm in Meadow, Texas, during the hardscrabble Dust Bowl years. By his mid-teens, he played guitar and fiddle and wrote songs. In 1953, in nearby Lubbock, he met Buddy Holly. “We said hello, shook hands, picked up our guitars, and started picking,” Curtis said during his “Poets and Prophets” program at the Museum in 2012. “There was no kind of small talk.”

In 1954, Holly and Curtis formed a band and began playing radio stations, parking lots, and school assemblies. In 1956, during his first recording session in Nashville, Holly recorded Curtis’s song “Rock Around with Ollie Vee” with Curtis on Fender Stratocaster guitar.

Curtis left the Crickets to tour as a guitarist for country star Slim Whitman and then Carl Smith. In 1957, Webb Pierce cut Curtis’s song “Someday” after the songwriter agreed to give Pierce a co-writing credit. It became a Top Twenty country hit.

In 1958, after the Crickets parted with Holly, Curtis joined the band at the invitation of drummer J. I. Allison and bassist Joe B. Mauldin. After Holly’s death, Earl Sinks provided Holly-like vocals for the 1960 album “In Style with the Crickets.” For the album, Curtis co-wrote “More Than I Can Say” with Allison and  wrote “I Fought the Law” the day of the album’s first session.

Curtis recorded nine solo albums, beginning with 1964’s “Beatle Hits Flamenco Guitar Style” to 2007’s “Sonny Curtis.” He wrote more than five hundred songs, including “A Fool Never Learns,” a Top Twenty pop hit for Andy Williams in 1964, and “The Straight Life,” a 1968 pop and country hit for Bobby Goldsboro.

Other artists who cut his songs include J. J. Cale, Glen Campbell, Johnny Cash, Rosanne Cash, Perry Como, John Conlee, Johnny Duncan, the Grateful Dead, Nanci Griffith, Waylon Jennings, Joan Jett, Dean Martin, Rick Nelson, Harry Nilsson, Roy Orbison, Tom Petty, Johnny Rivers, Social Distortion, Bruce Springsteen, the Stray Cats, Mel Tillis, the Wilburn Brothers, and Hank Williams Jr.