Sonny Curtis (January 2008)

Sonny Curtis, from his West Texas beginnings as the lead guitarist in Buddy Holly's pre-Crickets band to a prolific songwriting career, is a rare talent who successfully transcended musical genres long before the term 'crossover' was coined.  Sonny has written over 500 songs which have been recorded by legendary artists including Buddy Holly, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, Hank Williams Junior, Nanci Griffith, The Everly Brothers & Roy Orbison.

Sonny Curtis was born in May 1937 in Meadow, a small town outside of Lubbock, Texas & was the second youngest of six children born to struggling cotton farmers during the devastating Dust Bowl era.

In the Curtis family, music was a way of life.  When he was a boy, Sonny & his family would gather with neighbours at 'musical Saturday nights' where they picked & sang old Revolutionary War tunes.

Sonny's first love was bluegrass music, inspired in part by his uncles, the Mayfield Brothers, who were professional musicians.  One of the brothers, Ed Mayfield, played guitar in the 1950s for Sonny's lifelong hero & the father of bluegrass music Bill Monroe.

Sonny learned to play the fiddle & guitar at a very early age and, by the time he was 10 years old, he had joined brothers Pete & Dean to form the group The Curtis Brothers & together they performed on local radio stations & in jamborees.

Sonny received help from his friends & fellow musicians Buddy Holly, Waylon Jennings, and future Crickets J.I. Allison, Joe B. Mauldin & Glen D. Hardin.

While he was still in high school, word of Sonny's talent reached a local promoter in Lubbock, Texas who frequently added him to a bill that included a young Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash & other contemporary stars of the day.

In 1956, Sonny accompanied Buddy Holly & bassist Don Guess to Nashville, where he played lead guitar on several songs they recorded for Decca Records.  Soon afterwards, Sonny started to play guitar for country music legend Slim Whitman.

Up until this point, Sonny Curtis' songwriting efforts had been limited to making up tunes to fill the time.  That all changed in 1956 when he wrote 'Someday' which was a country hit for Webb Pierce.

On a hot Texas afternoon in the summer of 1958, Sonny wrote his most recognised & recorded tune; 'I fought the law', which was originally included on the 'In Style with The Crickets' album in 1959, made stars out of The Bobby Fuller Four when they re-recorded the song in 1965.

When he was 21, Sonny rejoined The Crickets just prior to Buddy Holly's death in a plane crash.  Sonny then took a job playing lead guitar for The Everly Brothers (Don & Phil).  He then received his draft notice from the army & was stationed in France for eighteen months.  It was while he was in France that he wrote 'Walk right back' which was a hit for The Everly Brothers in the US & the UK.

After his discharge from the army, Sonny moved to Los Angeles where, in 1965, he devoted his time to songwriting & to developing his own career as an artist.

Throughout the 1970s, Sonny applied his songwriting skills to television & radio commercials, and also wrote & sang 'Love is all around', the theme song for The Mary Tyler Moore Show.

Sonny moved to Nashville in 1976, where he toured steadily with Waylon Jennings' road show as a member of The Crickets for five years.  As a recording artist for Elektra Records in the early 1980s, he scored numerous songs in the Top 100 country charts, including 'Good ole girls'.

With co-writer Ron Hellard, Sonny Curtis achieved one of his biggest country music successes with 'I'm no stranger to the rain', a No.1 record for Keith Whitley (the song spent 2 weeks at No.1 on the Billboard country music singles chart in April 1989); the Country Music Association voted the song 'Single of the Year' in 1989.

Sonny Curtis is a member of BMI's 'Million Airs Club' in recognition of 'I fought the law', 'More than I can say' (co-written with J.I. Allison), 'Walk right back', 'The straight life' & 'I'm no stranger to the rain', each of which have logged over a million airplays in over 500,000 radio hours apiece.

Sonny Curtis' wide-ranging contributions to songwriting earned him a place in the Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI) Hall of Fame in 1991 [visit website].

Visit Sonny Curtis' Official Site