Sonny Curtis, the singer, songwriter, and musician known for penning songs like “I Fought The Law” and performing in Buddy Holly’s band the Crickets, has died. He was 88. Per The New York Times, his daughter Sarah Curtis Graziano confirmed he died in a hospital in Nashville due to complications of pneumonia.

Curtis was born on May 9, 1937 in Meadow, a tiny town in West Texas. As a teenager, a mutual friend introduced him to a nascent musician from nearby Lubbock named Buddy Holly. They struck up a musical partnership and began recording demos together, and Holly tapped Curtis to play guitar on what would be Holly’s final album That’ll Be The Day — including its legend-making title track — released in 1958. Shortly thereafter, Curtis began playing in the Crickets, the group Holly formed to circumvent limitations of his record label contract. The Crickets’ stint opening for Elvis Presley would help cement them into rock ‘n’ roll history.

Tensions were high among the Crickets, however, when Holly moved from Lubbock to New York City in January 1959. Having found a new singer with Earl Sinks, Curtis continued the Crickets, who were recording new music when Holly died in a plane crash less than a month after arriving in New York. That same year, Curtis was drafted into the military, and during basic training in California he wrote “Walk Write Back.” Crickets drummer Jerry Allison was performing with the Everly Brothers at the time, and he convinced Curtis to send “Walk Write Back” to them. The Everlys loved it, quickly recorded it, and got a Top 10 hit out of it. v

In 1960 the Crickets released their album In Style With The Crickets, which contained “I Fought The Law” and “More Than I Can Say” — two of Curtis’ best-known compositions. “I Fought The Law,” in particular, would become Curtis’ best-known song, being reimagined into a cross-genre staple; over the next few decades it’d get covered by country crooners like Waylon Jennings and Roy Orbison, heartland rockers like Bruce Springsteen and Tom Petty, and punks like the Clash and Dead Kennedys.

Throughout the rest of his career, Curtis released a handful of solo albums, and continued to record music intermittently with the Crickets. He was also known for writing and performing “Love Is All Around,” the opening theme song for The Mary Tyler Moore Show. As a member of the Crickets, he was inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in 2012.

Revisit some of Curtis’ best-known songs below.