Ten Songs You Might Not Know Are Covers: I Fought the Law (#3)

Tweet

What a gloomy, rainy day here in the "sunny south." That's okay, we need the rain, and it breaks the 90-plus temperatures and 100-plus heat index days. So here's another song that's a cover song, a fact which many people just might not know. #3: I Fought the Law One of the quintessential garage band songs of all time. If you're gonna form a rock band, you'd dang well better learn to play this song. And, of course, a lot of people look to that fabulous, blast-down-the-walls version by the Clash in 1979 and say, "Oh, sure, that's a cover of the 60s song." (A quick aside: with covers of songs like Eddy Grant's "Police on My Back" [that's the same Eddy Grant who did "Electric Avenue," by the way] and "Revolution Rock" by Danny Ray and the Revolutionaries, the Clash was superb at picking the right song to remake, something I don't think they got enough credit for.) Sure, the Bobby Fuller Four song in 1966. Y'know, his one big hit before that completely bizarre death of his (that some people still say was murder, not suicide). "I Fought the Law" by the Bobby Fuller Four was one of the 500 greatest songs of all time according to Rolling Stone, and classified as one of the songs that completely shaped rock and roll by no less than the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame! Yeah. That Bobby Fuller version was a cover, too. In 1958 Sonny Curtis wrote the song "I Fought the Law" while playing in a band called the Crickets. Of course, the Crickets had a fairly good songwriter in their lead singer, Buddy Holly. After Holly's death in 1959 the Crickets recorded an album that featured Curtis' great song. While their version didn't get noticed that much at the time, it certainly has gone on to become one of the great classic songs in rock and roll. I Fought the Law Written by Sonny Curtis Originally recorded by the Crickets, 1960 Famously covered by the Bobby Fuller Four, 1966 Also famously covered by the Clash, 1979 Here's the Crickets' original battle with the law: