When The Bobby Fuller Four recorded “I Fought the Law” in 1965, even the song itself was getting a second chance.
Written by Sonny Curtis, “I Fought the Law” had first been recorded several years earlier by The Crickets, the band once fronted by Buddy Holly.
“It was some time during the summer of 1959, and I would have been about twenty-one at the time,” Curtis told Classic Rock. “It was a real windy day, which happens a lot in west Texas. The sand was blowing outside. I picked up my guitar, and I can’t imagine where the idea came from, but I just started writing this song, ‘I Fought The Law.’ It only took about twenty minutes. You can tell that it didn’t take a rocket scientist to come up with those lyrics. But it’s my most important copyright.”
The Crickets’ version attracted little attention, but Bobby Fuller heard something in its tale of crime, consequences, and defeat. His harder-driving rendition would turn it into a rock ’n’ roll classic.
Fuller had grown up in El Paso, Texas, where he developed a sound heavily influenced by Holly and the West Texas rock scene. After relocating to Los Angeles with his band, he signed with Mustang Records and revisited “I Fought the Law,” which he had previously recorded with an earlier incarnation of his group.
The new version changed his career.
Released by The Bobby Fuller Four in late 1965, “I Fought the Law” climbed to No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1966. Fuller’s urgent vocal, jangling guitar, and the song’s instantly memorable declaration, “I fought the law and the law won,” gave the recording an energy that belied its story of resignation.
Tragically, Fuller had little time to enjoy his newfound success.
He was found dead inside his mother’s car in Los Angeles in July 1966, at just 23 years old. His death was ruled a suicide, although its unusual circumstances have fueled questions and speculation for decades. “I Fought the Law” consequently became inseparable from his brief career and remains The Bobby Fuller Four’s defining hit.
More than a decade later, the song found another ideal home.
The Clash recorded “I Fought the Law” after guitarist Mick Jones encountered Fuller’s recording while the British punk band was working in San Francisco.
“At the Automat in San Francisco, when we were working on Give ‘Em Enough Rope, they had a fantastic jukebox with ‘Sitting on the Dock of the Bay,’ Bobby Fuller Four ‘I Fought the Law,’ and all that,” guitarist Mick Jones wrote in the liner notes for Clash on Broadway. “Joe [Strummer] and me had a great time listening to it, it made a great impression on us. … A lot of the tunes that we did of other people’s stuff were just the tunes we liked and were listening to at that moment, and we started doing them.”
Their version first appeared on the 1979 EP The Cost of Living and was subsequently included on the U.S. edition of The Clash.
The Clash brought punk ferocity to the song without losing the irresistible simplicity that made Fuller’s rendition work. Their cover became a favorite in its own right and helped carry Sonny Curtis’ composition into another musical era.
“I’m really proud they cut my song, and I love that version of it,” Curtis said. “It just had the feel.”
Sixty-one years after The Bobby Fuller Four released their version, “I Fought the Law” still sounds tailor-made for reinvention. Fuller made it a ’60s hit, The Clash made it a punk standard, and its defiant hook has kept it alive for generations.
Related: 1966 Iconic Ballad, Covered by Elvis Presley, Is Still a Beloved Hit 60 Years Later
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