Prolific singer and songwriter Sonny Curtis has died. He wrote and performed “Love Is All Around,” the theme song for The Mary Tyler Moore Show.
MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
If you were watching TV back in the 1970s, you may recognize this song.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONNY CURTIS SONG, “LOVE IS ALL AROUND”)
KELLY: “Love Is All Around” was the theme song for “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” a sitcom about a 30-something woman who worked in television news.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “LOVE IS ALL AROUND”)
SONNY CURTIS: (Singing) Love is all around, no need to waste it. You can never tell. Why don’t you take it? You might just make it after all.
JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
That voice you hear is Sonny Curtis, who also wrote the song. Curtis was an important figure in rock and roll and country music. He died last week at the age of 88.
KELLY: As a teenager, he got his start playing guitar with Buddy Holly, even joining the future star on some of his earliest recording sessions.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “ROCK AROUND WITH OLLIE VEE”)
BUDDY HOLLY: (Singing) Well, we’re going to rock it to the rhythm and the blues tonight. Rock ’cause everything going to be all right. ‘Cause tonight we’re going to rock to the rhythm and the blues.
KELLY: Curtis would join Buddy Holly’s band The Crickets and continued with the group after Holly died in a plane crash in 1959.
SUMMERS: Through his seven-decade career in music, Curtis wrote hundreds of songs, including the 1961 Everly Brothers hit “Walk Right Back.”
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “WALK RIGHT BACK”)
THE EVERLY BROTHERS: (Singing) Walk right back to me this minute. Bring your love to me, don’t send it. I’m so lonesome every day.
SUMMERS: One of his best-known songs is “I Fought The Law.” It was popularized by the Bobby Fuller Four in 1966.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “I FOUGHT THE LAW”)
THE BOBBY FULLER FOUR: (Singing) I’m breaking rocks in the hot sun. I fought the law and the law won. I fought the law and the law won
KELLY: Such a good song. It was covered by a lot of artists over the years, including Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty, The Clash.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “I FOUGHT THE LAW”)
THE CLASH: (Singing) I left my baby, and it feels so bad. I guess my race is run. She’s the best girl that I ever had. I fought the law and the law won.
KELLY: Sonny Curtis was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2007 and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2012 as a member of The Crickets. He died last week in Nashville.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “I FOUGHT THE LAW”)
THE CLASH: (Singing) Robbing people with a six-gun. I fought the law and the law won. I fought the law and the law won
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