Sonny Curtis, the singer, songwriter, and musician recognized for penning songs like “I Fought The Regulation” and performing in Buddy Holly’s band the Crickets, has died. He was 88. Per The New York Occasions, his daughter Sarah Curtis Graziano confirmed he died in a hospital in Nashville resulting from problems of pneumonia.
Curtis was born on Could 9, 1937 in Meadow, a tiny city in West Texas. As a youngster, a mutual good friend launched him to a nascent musician from close by Lubbock named Buddy Holly. They struck up a musical partnership and commenced recording demos collectively, and Holly tapped Curtis to play guitar on what can be Holly’s ultimate album That’ll Be The Day — together with its legend-making title monitor — launched in 1958. Shortly thereafter, Curtis started taking part in within the Crickets, the group Holly shaped to avoid limitations of his file label contract. The Crickets’ stint opening for Elvis Presley would assist cement them into rock ‘n’ roll historical past.
Tensions had been excessive among the many Crickets, nonetheless, when Holly moved from Lubbock to New York Metropolis in January 1959. Having discovered a brand new singer with Earl Sinks, Curtis continued the Crickets, who had been recording new music when Holly died in a aircraft crash lower than a month after arriving in New York. That very same yr, Curtis was drafted into the navy, and through fundamental coaching in California he wrote “Stroll Write Again.” Crickets drummer Jerry Allison was performing with the Everly Brothers on the time, and he satisfied Curtis to ship “Stroll Write Again” to them. The Everlys cherished it, shortly recorded it, and obtained a Prime 10 hit out of it. v
In 1960 the Crickets launched their album In Fashion With The Crickets, which contained “I Fought The Regulation” and “Extra Than I Can Say” — two of Curtis’ best-known compositions. “I Fought The Regulation,” particularly, would develop into Curtis’ best-known tune, being reimagined right into a cross-genre staple; over the following few a long time it’d get coated by nation crooners like Waylon Jennings and Roy Orbison, heartland rockers like Bruce Springsteen and Tom Petty, and punks just like the Conflict and Useless Kennedys.
All through the remainder of his profession, Curtis launched a handful of solo albums, and continued to file music intermittently with the Crickets. He was additionally recognized for writing and performing “Love Is All Round,” the opening theme tune for The Mary Tyler Moore Present. As a member of the Crickets, he was inducted into the Rock And Roll Corridor Of Fame in 2012.
Revisit a few of Curtis’ best-known songs beneath.