905 The Bobby Fuller Four “I Fought the Law” 1966

“Imagine that the British Invasion of the US never happened, that the Beatles’ three-night stand on The Ed Sullivan Show never aired, and that American popular music in the 1960s developed on its own, without the introduction of a viral strain from across the Atlantic. What might it have sounded like? Maybe the answer lies in the music of Bobby Fuller, self-styled ‘Rock’n’Roll King of the Southwest’, who died on 18 July 1966, aged 23, in mysterious circumstances. Throughout the early 60s—working variously as a songwriter, performer, producer, label-owner and impresario—Fuller carved out a unique sound, blending southern styles and drawing heavily on the stripped-down, raw, heart-on-sleeve rock’n’roll of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and Eddie Cochran. To those elements he added vocal harmonies styled on the Everly Brothers and searing blasts of surf guitar and garage rock fuzz bass. It was a purely American music—one that didn’t acknowledge the Beatles or other British bands then making an impact in America…Randy Fuller recalls that his brother liked to say the Beatles would ‘never be able to do Buddy Holly like Buddy Holly because they’re not from Texas’” (Chris Campion, The Guardian, 16 July 2015). 

The Bobby Fuller Four “I Fought the Law”