by Robert Wilkinson
We continue our weekend musical feast celebrating the birthday of Sonny Curtis. If you don’t know who Sonny Curtis is, well, he was in the Crickets, the band who backed the immortal Buddy Holly. He's also one fantastic songwriter!
I don’t have time to create a full bio this year, so I’ll let the music of the great Sonny Curtis (May 9, 1937) speak for itself! According to Steve Van Zandt, the Crickets were the world's first rock and roll band, and Sonny kept it going after Buddy's death. You can out more by going to the Wikipedia link at the bottom when you get there.
Here’s the song he wrote to answer the errors in the movie The Buddy Holly Story. It tells the story of West Texas, Elvis, and how Buddy and the Crickets came to be. For your enjoyment, “The Real Buddy Holly Story”
From the 1963 movie, Just For Fun, the original Crickets doing a performance of a classic Sonny Curtis tune! Sonny’s on guitar, Glen D Hardin on keyboards, and Don Groom filling in for Jerry Allison. “My Little Girl”
He’s also the writer of one of the most covered songs in rock and roll, “I Fought The Law.” Here’s the most famous version, done in 1966 by the West Texas group the Bobby Fuller Four, of the rocking “I Fought The Law”
Here’s the original studio version by the Crickets in 1959 of “I Fought The Law”
Here’s Sonny live with Lloyd Maines on Lubbock tv doing his version of “I Fought The Law.” Here he is again in 2010 doing another live performance of “I Fought the Law.”
In a final nod to this rock and roll classic, here are five great covers of this tune! First, we feature the Boss, Bruce Springsteen, in 2009, in a live performance of “I Fought The Law.”
Here’s the Clash music video of “I Fought The Law,” and here they are live in Paris in 1980 doing “I Fought The Law.”
We now go to none other than the Grateful Dead in April 1993 at the Nassau Coliseum doing their unique version of “I Fought The Law.”
Here’s Bryan Adams live doing “I Fought the Law”
We’ll finish this tribute to the song with Green Day in a live 2006 performance in Milan doing “I Fought The Law.”
From the same 2010 show linked above, here’s Sonny doing a song he wrote made famous by the Everly Brothers, “Walk Right Back.”
From 1980, Waylon Jennings and the Crickets doing a medley of Buddy Holly tunes!
“Well All Right,” “It’s So Easy,” and “Peggy Sue.” (Waylon was Buddy’s bass player on the fated tour where the plane went down in Clear Lake, Iowa.) Who was and who wasn't on the plane is the stuff of legends! You can find out more by going to Tommy Allsup tells of the coin flip with Ritchie Valens.
Sonny also wrote the theme song for the Mary Tyler Moore show, called “Love Is All Around.” Here’s Sonny in a short clip from 2009 doing a live performance of “Love Is All Around”
Here’s the 1970 studio original by Sonny doing “Love Is All Around”
Here’s the original Crickets in an interview and a performance of “More Than I Can Say”
I found it again! This is an unreleased single from 1955 done by Sonny and Buddy Holly titled “Because You Love Me” and “I’ll Miss My Heart.” (VERY country!)
Sonny was playing guitar in January 1956 when Buddy recorded his first single at Bradley's Barn. With Grady Martin on rhythm and Don Guess on bass (the Nashville equivalent of the Wrecking Crew), here's "Love Me." Here was the flip side, which became a bigger hit down the road, "Blue Days, Black Nights" Neither song charted, Buddy was released from Decca, and hit the road to Norman Petty's studio in Clovis, beginning the legendary cuts.
A 1958 early single written and performed by Sonny called “A Pretty Girl”
Here’s Sonny early on doing “Willa May Jones”
Here’s another early single written by Sonny and Jerry Allison about rock and roll called “Day Gig”
Here’s a very strange unserious single from 1964 written by Sonny and Lou Adler titled “A Beatle I Want To Be”
From the same year, it’s clear that Sonny loved Beatle music since he recorded an entire album of flamenco guitar versions of Beatle tunes. Last year I had “This Boy,” “A Hard Day’s Night,” “PS I Love You,” “She Loves You,” “And I Love Her,” and “Please Please Me.” This year they’re all gone, with this one exceptions. Here’s the very beautiful “Here, There, and Everywhere.”
Here’s a great audio of Sonny playing a tasteful version of ”Well All Right”
In 2004, the Crickets got together with some awesome musicians, including Eric, the Everlys, Waylon, Graham Nash and a bunch more to record The Crickets and Their Buddies
Here’s a great 11+ minute video of the original Crickets at the 2007 Rockin’ 50s Fest III! This is Sonny, Joe B Maudlin on bass, and Jerry Allison on drums with John Shiely (CEO of Briggs and Stratton Corp.) giving a good effort on vocals on this great set of “Not Fade Away,” “Words of Love/Badlands,” and “Rave On.”
We’ll close with a real treat. Sonny got together with Joe B Mauldin and Jerry Allison in Anaheim in 2009. Even though this clip is only one minute long, it’s the original Crickets performing Buddy’s “Everyday.”
Speaking of these founders of west Texas rock and roll, here’s 30 minutes of interviews with Sonny, Joe B, and Jerry in 2008 talking about The Beginnings of Buddy Holly and the Crickets until the End.”
If you want to know more about this amazing West Texas talent who hung with Buddy and was the reason the Crickets continued after his death, here’s the The Sonny Curtis website.
Thanks for giving us such great tunes over the years, Sonny! Glad you blasted out of West Texas and gave the world a legend! May you have many more performances and keep Texas music alive!!
Copyright © 2025 Robert Wilkinson
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