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Sonny Curtis (born May 9, 1937, Meadow, Texas) is an American singer and songwriter. Most of his work falls into the Pop and Country genres. He was a teenage pal and band member with Buddy Holly in Lubbock, Texas. Sonny is his actual first name, not a nickname.
Although Curtis had gone on the road with other musicians by the time Buddy Holly put together The Crickets in 1957, Curtis joined The Crickets after Holly's death in 1959, and soon took over the lead vocalist role in addition to lead guitar. As the credits show, he was part of the band for the 1960 album In Style with The Crickets for which they recorded the original versions of two of Curtis's best known songs, "I Fought the Law" and "More Than I Can Say" (co-written with drummer Jerry Allison.) He has continued to record and perform intermittently as part of the band over six decades, most recently in their album "The Crickets and their Buddies" (2004) where they reprised most of their hits with help from many noted fellow musicians. Curtis did leave the band several times to pursue his solo career but even during those periods made occasional guest appearances, in performance and on record, with The Crickets. His song "The Real Buddy Holly Story" was written in response to the inaccuracies in the movie The Buddy Holly Story.
He wrote the theme from The Mary Tyler Moore Show, "Love is All Around", which he also recorded. He also wrote "Walk Right Back", which was a hit for the Everly Brothers and later for Anne Murray, "More Than I Can Say", recorded after The Crickets' original by Bobby Vee, then Leo Sayer. "I Fought the Law" was later covered in the studio or in concert by many artists including Bobby Fuller, The Clash, The Dead Kennedys, Bryan Adams, John Cougar Mellencamp, Bruce Springsteen, Roy Orbison, Tom Petty, Social Distortion, Mike Ness, Hank Williams Jr, Waylon Jennings, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Green Day, The Ramones, Grateful Dead, Stray Cats, Mary's Danish, Mano Negra, the Big Dirty Band, Lolita No. 18, The Brian Jonestown Massacre, Attaque 77, Die Toten Hosen, Status Quo, Nanci Griffith, and The Men They Couldn't Hang. For the 2003 film, Intermission, Colin Farrell recorded a version of the song, singing it in the guise of his character in the film. Sonny Curtis also co-wrote the 1987 Country Song of the Year I'm No Stranger To The Rain recorded by the late Keith Whitley. Other songs he wrote include The Straight Life (recorded by Bobby Goldsboro) and "A Fool Never Learns" (recorded by Andy Williams). In 1991, Sonny Curtis was inducted in to the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame.
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