Sonny Curtis, Crickets guitarist and composer of I Fought The Law, died at the age of 88 on 19 September.
His death was reported on the Buddy Holly Facebook page: “We are very saddened at the recent passing of our much-loved dear friend and close Buddy and Cricket colleague, Sonny Curtis. A brilliant songwriter, musician and wonderful soul. RIP in Rock’n’Roll Heaven.”
His wife of more than a half-century, Louise Curtis, confirmed the news to The Associated Press and his daughter, Sarah Curtis, wrote on his Facebook page that he had been suddenly ill. “I’m heartbroken to tell you that my dad Sonny passed away yesterday after a sudden illness,” Sarah said. “I’m so grateful that I was with him at the end, along with my mom. It was peaceful and he didn’t suffer. 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.”
Exceptional Life
Curtis, inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of The Crickets in 2012, was born in Meadow, Texas, on 9 May 1937. A childhood friend of Buddy Holly’s and an active musician in the formative years of rock’n’roll, in 1955 and 1956 he, along with Holly, opened concerts for Elvis Presley .
Talking with Vintage Rock in 2016, Curtis recalled his first encounter with the ‘Hillbilly Cat’ in person. “It was 6 January 1955 when he came through Lubbock,” Curtis said. “I was hired to pick on the show. Elvis came out and just tore it up. We all just went nuts, and we noticed that the girls were going for him big time. That got our attention! Right after that, we started being Elvis clones. I had a Martin acoustic guitar and Buddy had an electric. I could play like Scotty Moore on Buddy’s guitar, and Buddy would play my Martin. We still played country and bluegrass, but we started playing rock’n’roll most of the time.”
Throughout 1955, Curtis continued to play rock’n’roll and country with a variety of local musicians while making several demo recordings with Buddy Holly. In February, when Holly signed with Decca Records, he needed a band to take to Nashville for his first recording session. “In our minds,” Curtis recalled with VR, “or perhaps I should say our pea brains, we thought, ‘Hey, we made it. We’ve got a record deal. From now on out it’s girls and Cadillacs all the time!’ It didn’t take us long to discover that wasn’t happening.”
Although Curtis left Holly’s band before the formation of the Crickets, he stayed close to the group as he focused his attention on songwriting as showcased on Rock Around With Ollie Vee. “Ollie Vee was a black lady that was married to Willie Robinson who worked for my dad,” Curtis told Vintage Rock. “I thought it was a terrific name, and the rest was probably inspired by Bill Haley’s Rock Around The Clock.”
I Fought The Law
Following the tragic death of Buddy Holly in a plane crash in 1959, he joined Joe B. Mauldin, J.I. Allison and vocalist Earl Sinks in The Crickets and played on the album In Style With The Crickets, which included I Fought The Law.
At the time Curtis wrote I Fought The Law he had no idea how successful the song would become, telling VR: “I was just hanging out in my living room, and it was real hot outside and the sand was blowing. I wrote it in about 20 minutes as more of a country song.”
In the last 65 years, the song has been covered by artists from Ducks Deluxe to The Clash, Hank Williams Jr, the Dead Kennedys, Johnny Cash, Green Day and Bruce Springsteen.
Reflecting on how 20 minutes spent in his youth turned into “my biggest copyright,” he told Scott Schinder. “Some songs have their own life. You do your best and then send them out into the world, and sometimes they surprise you.”
Along with Allison, he also participated in Eddie Cochran’s last recording sessions, including the song Three Steps To Heaven.
Walk Right Back
Curtis recorded a number of solo albums, such as Sonny Curtis and Spectrum, and hit the country Top 20 with the 1981 single Good Ol’ Girls. In later years, he continued to play with Allison and other members of the Crickets. The band released several albums, among them 2004’s The Crickets And Their Buddies, featuring appearances by Eric Clapton, Graham Nash and Phil Everly – a connection that dated back to 1959 when Allison and Curtis toured with The Everly Brothers as their backing band. He also wrote Walk Right Back, a major hit for the Everlys in 1961.
Curtis settled in Nashville in the mid-1970s and lived there with his wife, Louise. In 1991, he was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame and, in 2007, the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville as a member of the Crickets. In April 2012, the Crickets were added to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, an honour denied them when Buddy Holly was posthumously inducted in 1986.
Vintage Rock would like to express its condolences to Sonny Curtis’ family, friends and fans. He will be missed but his music lives on.
Featured image credit: Ross Gilmore/Redferns/Getty
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Dan Biggane
Dan Biggane is a writer for Vintage Rock and Classic Pop magazines. A former entertainment editor at the Bath Chronicle newspaper, he’s interviewed numerous big names from the world of rock’n’roll, including Dion, Jerry Allison, and Slim Jim Phantom. He has also contributed a number of cover features for Vintage Rock including Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry, Eddie Cochran, Billy Fury and Bo Diddley.
