Sonny Curtis, 1937 – 2025

Singer/songwriter Sonny Curtis (The Mary Tyler Moore theme song) died on Sept. 19. He was 88. Curtis told The Austin Chronicle that the song—“Love Is All Around”—was a “one-day deal from start to finish . . . This friend of mine said, ‘They’re doing a sitcom with Mary Tyler Moore and they want a theme song. Would you be interested?’ He dropped off a four-page format that described the show. It wasn’t a script, just a description. I’ve always thought that was kinda lucky, because they didn’t give me a lot of information. It just said, ‘A girl from the Midwest moves to Minneapolis.’ She got jilted I believe. ‘Gets a job at a newsroom, gets an apartment she has a hard time affording.’ You know, that kinda stuff. By about 2 p.m. I had one verse.” Curtis also wrote for Buddy Holly and the Crickets, The Everly Brothers (“Walk Right Back”), Bobby Fuller ("I Fought the Law”), and Keith Whitley ("I'm No Stranger to the Rain”).

“Love Is All Around” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKv6xMnonX8&list=RDpKv6xMnonX8&start_radio=1