September 20, 2025
One of the last surviving major creative forces from the birth of rock and roll, Crickets frontman Sonny Curtis, has died at 88 following a brief illness.
Curtis died September 19.
Born May 9, 1937, in Meadow, Texas, he picked cotton as a child, a suffocating job he hoped to escape via his musical ability.
By 14, he had met fellow Texan Buddy Holly, with whom he eventually recorded at Decca.
Curtis played with Holly on tour and formally joined the Crickets in 1958, but it was a rocky start — he was drafted into the military, and Holly died with Ritchie Valens, the Big Bopper and a pilot in a legendary plane crash in 1959 referred to as “the day the music died.”
By 1960, the Crickets had rebounded, and In Style with the Crickets was released, an LP that boasted two of Curtis’s most famous songs, “I Fought the Law” and “More Than I Can Say.”
“I Fought the Law” has been recorded dozens of times, most famously and successfully by the Bobby Fuller Four in 1966, when it went Top 10. It was also covered by Sam Neely (1975), the Dead Kennedys (1978) and the Clash (1979).
Bobby Fuller died within months of the song’s success.
“More Than I Can Say” was a minor hit in 1961 for Bobby Vee, but a smash for Leo Sayer in 1980, when it was held back at no. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 for five weeks by Kenny Rogers (“Lady”) and the recently murdered John Lennon [“(Just Like) Starting Over”].
Also during the early ‘60s, Curtis scored with his song “Walk Right Back,” a no. 7 hit for the Everly Brothers in 1961.
Curtis played off and on, mostly on, with the Crickets for decades, earning a spot in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2012.
In the meantime, he pursued solo work and wrote jingles, but topped his other achievements when he was asked to try his hand at a TV theme song.
Pitched a new sitcom starring Mary Tyler Moore, he deduced from a four-page outline it was about a young woman dumped in her small town who moves to the big city and has to struggle for the first time. That inspired his lyric, “How will you make it on your own? / The world is awfully big / And girl, this time you’re all alone.”
He wrote it in two hours.
It was chosen as the opener for Mary Tyler Moore (1970-1977), becoming one of the most iconic TV theme songs of all time.
Interestingly, the song’s lyrics were updated after the first season, as it was obvious the character had made it. “Who can turn the world on with her smile?” ruled the day.
Watch Curtis tell Mo Rocca about his incredible career on CBS Sunday Morning from 2022:
Curtis is survived by Louise, his wife of 50+ years. ⚡️