The thematic song “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” is familiar for generations of television observers. The name of the person who wrote and sang him less.
Who can turn on the world with her smile?
Who can take a single day, and suddenly all this seems worthwhile?
Well, it's you, girl, and you have to know that
With every look and every small movement that you show
Love everything around, you do not need to waste it
You can have a city, why don't you take it
You are going to do it in the end
But by the time Sonny Kertis recorded “Love Is All Around” in 1970, he “did this” several times over himself as an author of songs, as an artist of recording, and as an early friend of the legendary friend of Holly.
Curtis was born in 1937 in the countryside of West Texas, collecting cotton on the farm of his father. “Oh, it was a miserable job,” he told Mo Rocke. “The heavier the cotton bag, the worse, dude.”
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His love of music came from the family. His aunt taught him to play the guitar, and, working on these fields, Curtis came up with his own songs: “Driving a tractor, you go half a minute in this way, and when you get there, you turn and return to half a mile in this way. You have enough time to write a song! “
Curtis was only 14 years old when he met a young friend Holly in a neighboring Labboe. “The friend had black hair, but he painted their blond, and it grew up. And he reminded me of a black racer.
Rockka asked: “How quickly did you realize that this guy is serious about music?”
“Buddy, he radiated confidence. He just knew that one day he would do it big. ”
They became quick friends associated with their love of music. Sometimes Curtis said that he would spend the night at Baddy. They woke up at midnight and turned over on a car radio for shrivport shows, Louisiana to hear some of the rhythm and blues voices that will form rock -n -roll: “We heard, oh, big mother Thornton and Lonni Johnson, and lead the stomach, little Richard, Ray Charles, you call him.”
“Have you just absorbed it?” Rockka asked.
“Oh, boy, we will ever, yes!”
Baddy and Sonny formed a group and still found out their own sound when the then little -known Elvis Presley came to the city. “And I mean that the girls were similar, dude. And this really attracted our attention. Suddenly, we thought it was not only music, but also includes Beautiful girls! “
When Elvis returned to the city in 1956, the Baddy and Sonny group became the first act. “Well, I think we were there, at the beginning of the rock -N -roll.”
“What was Elvis, like behind the scenes?” Rockka asked.
“He was just an old boy.”
The group continued to record some demonstrations, but did not earn a lot of money.
So, Curtis left to tour with Country Star Slim Whitman. “He treated me like a younger brother,” said Curtis. “I remember that I will be on stage, and he came and said:“ Now do not be nervous. ”
Meanwhile, Baddy Holly formed a new group that would be fundamental. The crickets shot, appearing on “Show Ed Sullivan.”
Rockka asked: “When this happened, did you feel a little deprived, like” Ugh “?”
“I felt that the train left the station, and I was not on it, do you understand?” Curtis answered.
But on February 3, 1959, a friend and former comrade in the group of Kertis died in a plane crash near Lake Iowa.
Curtis served as a carrier.
“Baddy Holly was 22 years old when he died,” Rockka said.
“Yes. Can you imagine the amount of music that he pumped into the system in a short period, for example, 18 months? Not to mention how much he contributed if he were near. ”
By that time, Curtis joined the crickets. But Holly left, the group felt without a steering wheel.
It was Curtis's talent for writing songs that the wind in his sails helped return. His song “Walk Right Back” has become a big hit for the Everly brothers:
And then there is this classic, which, according to Curtis, he wrote in about 20 minutes: “I fought with the law”:
“I fought with the law,” was covered with artists from Bobby Fuller Four to the collision.
Sonny Kertis is now 84. He and Louise, his wife for more than 50 years, live outside Nashville, where they raised their daughter Sarah. He is fixed in the hall of the glory of the musicians of Nashville – like his old guitar.
In 2012, when the crickets were resigned, they were introduced into the Rock -N -Roll Glory Hall.
But this is the song that Curtis wrote for a small screen, which may be its most stable heritage.
In 1970, he lived in Los -Angeles, when he called a friend about the new sitcom produced for Mary Tyler Moore: “It was only this young girl in this small community, and she moves to the big city of Minneapolis, gets work at the news station. And it was about it. “
Curtis wrote a song theme based on a four -page description of the show. “I honed from the part that she rented an apartment, it was difficult for her to get it, and wrote:“ How will you do it yourself? “…” This world is terribly large, and a girl, this time you are alone. “
For just a few hours, Curtis was called to the studio to play his song for producer James L. Brooks. Curtis recalled: “I pulled my guitar, and I sang it to him. He smiled and said: “Sing again.” And I had to sing it about ten times.
Web -Filling: Sonny Kertis about writing the song “Show Mary Tyler Moore” Show
Rockka said: “It was not given that you would write And sing. “
“No. In fact, they did not want me to sing him. I said: “I want to sing this,” you know? And I was probably more persistent than I had to, if I knew better. But, fortunately, I I did not Know better at that time! “
When the show became a hit, Curtis was asked to convey his song: “When they started to do the second season, he said:“ Sonny, she obviously did it. And we have several new texts. ”
For a person whose career rises to the birth of rock -N -roll, Sonny Kertis remains humiliatingly modest. “Oh, I always had a rule, do not give advice in the crowd,” he laughed.
But when he presses, he will share some wisdom: “If they say:“ Man, you must return to Texas because you will never do it, ”just look at them and say:“ No, you are mistaken because I will do it. ”
Rockka replied: “You know, I have to write it down, because it sounds like a song right here!”
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The story created by Michelle Kessel. Editor: Lauren Barnello. Illustrations: Mitch Butler.
Initially published on January 9, 2022.
