49 min listen
Ep. 51 - SONNY CURTIS ("I Fought the Law")
Ep. 51 - SONNY CURTIS ("I Fought the Law")
ratings:
Length:
58 minutes
Released:
Dec 13, 2016
Format:
Podcast episode
Description
Sonny Curtis began his music career in Lubbock, Texas, playing lead guitar in Buddy Holly’s pre-Crickets band, The Three Tunes. He landed his first hit as a songwriter when Webb Pierce took his song “Someday” to #12 on the Billboard country chart in 1957. He went on to his own performing career, both as a solo artist and as the longtime guitarist and vocalist for the post-Buddy Holly Crickets, while continuing to write songs that became hits for others. These include The Everly Brothers’ “Walk Right Back,” Andy Williams’ “A Fool Never Learns,” The Bobby Fuller Four’s “I Fought the Law,” Bobby Goldsboro’s “The Straight Life,” Leo Sayer’s “More Than I Can Say,” and Keith Whitley’s #1 country hit, “I’m No Stranger to the Rain.” In addition, Curtis wrote and performed “Love is All Around,” the theme song to The Mary Tyler Moore Show. His music has been covered by Roy Orbison, Tom Petty, The Grateful Dead, The Stray Cats, Bryan Adams, John Cougar Mellencamp, Johnny Cash, Bruce Springsteen, Waylon Jennings, Hank Williams, Jr., Joan Jett, Sammy Davis, Jr., Dean Martin, Bing Crosby, Chet Atkins, Johnny Rivers, Green Day, Harry Nilsson, Glen Campbell, and many others. He’s a member of the Musician’s Hall of Fame and the Texas Heritage Songwriters Hall of Fame. He was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1991. In 2012 he and his fellow Crickets were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which also counted Sonny’s “I Fought the Law” as one of the 500 “Songs That Shaped Rock.” Similarly, “I Fought the Law” is on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the “500 Greatest Songs of All Time.”
Released:
Dec 13, 2016
Format:
Podcast episode
Titles in the series (100)
Ep. 18A - MAC DAVIS ("In the Ghetto") - 1 of 2: Part 1 of 2: Hailing from Lubbock, Texas, Mac Davis began his music career working for Vee Jay Records and Liberty Records in Atlanta. Relocating to Los Angeles in the late 1960s, he became a staff songwriter for Nancy Sinatra’s music publishing company. His early songwriting success came when Elvis Presley recorded several of his songs, including “A Little Less Conversation,” “Memories,” “Clean Up Your Own Backyard,” “Don’t Cry Daddy,” and “In the Ghetto.” Soon his songs were being recorded by O.C. Smith, Kenny Rogers and the First Edition, Glen Campbell, Ray Price, and Bobby Goldsboro, who enjoyed a major hit with Mac’s “Watching Scotty Grow” in 1971. Thanks to his success as a songwriter, Davis signed an artist deal with Columbia Records, and later Casablanca Records, scoring thirty-three charting singles between 1970 and 1986. Most of those hits were written by Davis himself, including “I Believe in Music,” “One Hell of a Woman,” “Sto by Songcraft: Spotlight on Songwriters