BOBBY FULLER FOUR - I Fought The Law

In 1959 singer and guitarist Sonny Curtis joined The Crickets, replacing the Texas-based group's founder Buddy Holly - who had tragically died in a plane crash. The following year the group released the album In Style With The Crickets introducing the song I Fought The Law, a song Curtis had written in 1958. Because of the upsetting death of Holly the song didn't receive much interest, and it didn't get any airplay. When the Texas rock group Bobby Fuller Four covered the song in 1965 it had already been covered by others, including a previous Fuller recording that was a major regional hit West Texas. The new version from Bobby Fuller Four reached number nine on the Billboard Top 100 chart. However, within six months of appearing on the charts, 23 year old Fuller was found dead in his mother's car in Los Angeles. Although foul play was suspected, the death was ruled a suicide. Four years later, at the same parking lot where Fuller died, singer Janis Joplin purchased bad heroin - she died of an overdose a couple hundred yards from where Fuller died. Ironically they were born a few months apart in the same area of Southeast Texas, and they both moved to Los Angeles around the same time - they didn't know each other.