| I Fought the Law | |
| Type: | single |
| Artist: | the Crickets |
| Album: | In Style With the Crickets |
| A-Side: | A Sweet Love |
| Recorded: | May 18, 1959[1] |
| Genre: | Rock and roll |
| Label: | Coral |
| Producer: | Norman Petty |
"I Fought the Law" is a song written by Sonny Curtis of the Crickets and popularized by a cover by the Bobby Fuller Four, becoming a top-ten hit for the band in 1966. Their version of the song was ranked No. 175 on the Rolling Stone list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time in 2004, and the same year was named one of the 500 "Songs that Shaped Rock" by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
A version by Sam Neely charted in 1975. The song was also recorded by the Clash in 1979. A version with different lyrics was recorded by the Dead Kennedys in 1978.
The song was written in 1958 by Sonny Curtis, and recorded in 1959 when he joined the Crickets, taking the place of Buddy Holly on guitar. Joe B. Mauldin and Jerry Allison continued their positions on the stand-up bass and drums, respectively, while Earl Sinks filled the role for vocals. The song was included on their 1960 album, In Style with the Crickets, and the following year appeared as the B-side of their single, "A Sweet Love". The song received very little airplay.
Milwaukee's Paul Stefen and the Royal Lancers covered the song in 1962; it provided them with a local hit, but it did not make the national charts.[2] In 1964, Sammy Masters recorded his cover of the song. That same year, the song was recorded by Bobby Fuller and his band on his own Exeter label in El Paso, which solidified the band's popularity in the West Texas area with one of his biggest local hits.
| I Fought the Law | |
| Cover: | IFoughtTheLawBF4single.jpg |
| Caption: | Mid-1960s US edition of Bobby Fuller Four recording |
| Type: | single |
| Artist: | the Bobby Fuller Four |
| Album: | I Fought the Law |
| B-Side: | Little Annie Lou |
| Genre: |
|
| Label: | Mustang |
| Producer: | Bob Keane |
| Prev Title: | Let Her Dance |
| Prev Year: | 1965 |
| Next Title: | Love's Made a Fool of You |
| Next Year: | 1966 |
After enjoying regional success in Texas, Bobby Fuller and his band decided to switch to a major label—Del-Fi Records under Mustang Records—and they became known as The Bobby Fuller Four. While producing minor hits, the band broke the national top ten when they re-recorded "I Fought the Law" in 1965 with Bobby Fuller (vocals, guitar), Randy Fuller (backing vocals, bass guitar), Jim Reese (backing vocals, guitar), and DeWayne Quirico (drums).
Just six months after the song made its first appearance on the Billboard Top 100 chart, Fuller was found dead from asphyxiation in his mother's car in a parking lot near his Los Angeles apartment. The police declared the death an apparent suicide, but others believe that he was murdered.[5]
The mono and stereo mixes differ in both Fuller's vocals and the guitar riffs.[6]
In 2015, the Bobby Fuller Four version of the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.[7]
| Chart (1966) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Canadian RPM Top Singles[8] | 11 |
| US Billboard Hot 100[9] | 9 |
| I Fought the Law | |
| Cover: | I fought the law.jpg |
| Caption: | CD edition of 1988 single release |
| Type: | single |
| Artist: | the Clash |
| Ep: | The Cost of Living |
| B-Side: | (White Man) In Hammersmith Palais |
| Released: | (US) |
| Genre: | Punk rock[10] [11] |
| Label: | CBS |
| Prev Title: | English Civil War |
| Prev Year: | 1979 |
| Next Title: | Groovy Times |
| Next Year: | 1979 |
In mid-1978, the Clash were working on their second album, Give 'Em Enough Rope. Singer Joe Strummer and guitarist Mick Jones flew to San Francisco to record overdubs in September–October at the Automatt studio. The owner of the Automatt kept his collection of classic jukeboxes distributed around the various rooms of the studio complex. Strummer and Jones heard the Bobby Fuller version of "I Fought the Law" for the first time on one of the jukeboxes.[12] Their version first appeared on the EP The Cost of Living in May 1979 in the UK, and later that year was made part of the American edition of the Clash's eponymous album. This cover version helped gain the Clash their first taste of airplay in the States, and is one of the best-known cover versions of the song. A live recording of the song, performed at the Lyceum Theatre, West End, London, on December 28, 1978, features as the last piece of the 1980 film Rude Boy directed by Jack Hazan and David Mingay. The Clash were dressed all in black for that gig, and the song, at that stage, was considered the film's title song.[13] [14] [15] [16] On July 26, 1979, "I Fought the Law" was the first single by the band to be released in the United States.
In 1988, CBS Records re-issued the single (catalog number) in CD, 12-inch and 7-inch vinyl formats, with "City of the Dead" (2:24) and "1977" (1:40) as its 7-inch B-side. The song is featured as a downloadable track in the music video game series Rock Band.[17]
In 1989, during Operation Just Cause, the U.S. military surrounded the Apostolic Nunciature in Panama while trying to capture Manuel Noriega, the strongman of Panama. U.S. forces blasted loud rock music—including "I Fought the Law" by the Clash—to put pressure on Noriega to give himself up.[18]
In 2012, the Clash's version of the song was featured in the video game Sleeping Dogs, as part of a karaoke mini-game.
The song appears during the end credits of the 2014 film RoboCop, the 2016 film War on Everyone and the 2018 video game Lego DC Super-Villains.
Some of the percussive noises on the record were made by hitting the pipes on a urinal. Jones told Uncut magazine in 2015, "Yeah, we went into the toilets and banged on the pipes with hammers to make it sound like a chain gang. Y'know, that "clang! clang!" at the end? And then at the very end you can hear a "sssszzhhh!" That's it flushing!"[19]
| Year | Chart | Peak position | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | 1979 | Irish Singles Chart[20] | 24 |
| 2nd | 1988 | ||
| 1988 |
. The Billboard Book Of Top 40 Country Hits: 1944-2006, Second edition. Joel Whitburn . 2004 . Record Research . 389.