The Well-Traveled Story Behind “I Fought the Law” by The Bobby Fuller Four

I fought the law, and the law won. There is nothing more final than those eight words. The whole story is right in that line. Every other line in the entire song is secondary to that main theme. He’s in jail. He was broke. He feels guilty. He committed robbery. He disappointed his baby. It’s just that simple. The intricate part is the way the song has been recorded and interpreted through the years. From West Texas to New York City to Milwaukee to Nashville to England to the Super Bowl. Let’s take a look at the story behind “I Fought the Law” by The Bobby Fuller Four.

West Texas

Sonny Curtis wrote the song in the blink of an eye. He told Bart Herbison in 2017, “I wrote it in my living room in West Texas one sandstormy afternoon. And I mean, If you know West Texas, the sand blows out there, and that’s what I remember about that afternoon. It took me about 20 minutes.”

I’m breakin’ rocks in the hot sun
I fought the law, and the law won
I fought the law, and the law won

New York City

Buddy Holly and The Crickets had gone their separate ways in 1958. Bassist Joe B. Mauldin and drummer J.I. Allison teamed up with vocalist Earl Sinks and guitarist/vocalist Sonny Curtis to record a new Crickets album at Bell Sound Recording Studio in New York after Holly’s death in a plane crash on February 3, 1959. Said Curtis, “I sort of wrote it as a country song. When we went up to New York City to do In Style with The Crickets, we were just riding along in the car and trying to think of songs because we really needed new songs. I said, ‘I got this song,’ and sang ‘I Fought the Law.’ Everybody said, ‘Hey, man, that’s (good.)’ So J.I. put those rim shots at the front, and I transcribed it into a straight-eight feel, and that’s how we recorded it when we got to New York.”

I needed money ’cause I had none
I fought the law, and the law won
I fought the law, and the law won

Milwaukee

Paul Stefen and the Royal Lancers recorded a version in 1962, and it became a regional hit around Milwaukee. It failed to make the national charts.

I left my baby, and I feel so bad
I guess my race is run
But she’s the best girl I’ve ever had
I fought the law, and the law won
I fought the law, and the law won

El Paso, Texas

Several years later, Bobby Fuller heard the recording by The Crickets and recorded his own version. The record was released on the Exeter label and reached No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Curtis remembered the slow climb to that position. “It was kind of a slow starter, actually, when Bobby first put it out,” he recalled. “It started out on the West Coast, and I was in L.A. when I heard it, and it kind of worked its way up to the West Coast, all the way up north, and then it kind of started going east, and then, pretty soon—I mean, it took six or eight weeks, but it became a big hit.”

Robbin’ people with a six-gun
I fought the law, and the law won
I fought the law, and the law won

Zip Gun

Curtis talked about this part of the song to Kindell Moore in 2022, “Robbin’ people with a zip gun, now, everybody else that’s ever done it says ’six-gun.’ But a zip gun is actually a homemade gun, kinda like a pistol. You take a block of wood and a pipe, and you tape it together with electrical tape. You take a nail and a hammer, and there you go, man. You got yourself a gun. That’s a zip gun. I don’t know where I learned that, but that’s the way I wrote it. But something that is kind of frightening to me, is I don’t think I ever wrote it down. I just kind of had it in my head.”

I miss my baby and the good fun
I fought the law, and the law won
I fought the law, and the law won

Nashville

Hank Williams Jr. recorded the song in 1978, and released it on his Family Tradition album. Curtis called that recording his favorite version of the song.

I left my baby, and I feel so bad
I guess my race is run
But she’s the best girl I’ve ever had
I fought the law, and the law won
I fought the law, and the law won

England

The Clash put out “I Fought the Law” as a single also in 1979. When Curtis was asked his thoughts on their version, he perked up, “Oh, it’s a terrific version. What a good rock and roll, punk rock, if they want to call it that. Whatever, great record. Yeah, I loved it!”

Clash guitarist Mick Jones wrote in the liner notes for Clash on Broadway, “At the Automat in San Francisco, when we were working on Give ‘Em Enough Rope, they had a fantastic jukebox with ‘Sitting on the Dock of the Bay,’ Bobby Fuller Four ‘I Fought the Law,’ and all that. Joe [Strummer] and me had a great time listening to it, it made a great impression on us. … A lot of the tunes that we did of other people’s stuff were just the tunes we liked and were listening to at that moment, and we started doing them.”

Drummer Topper Headon wrote, “When Mick and Joe first played it to me on an acoustic guitar, I said ‘Oh, I’m not doing that, it sounds terrible.’ Of course, as soon as we got a few drums on it and ‘electrified it up,’ it sounded great.”

The Super Bowl

In 2004, the song made an appearance in an advertisement on Super Bowl Sunday. Curtis was honored. “A group called Green Day did it with a Pepsi commercial, and that was a real nice surprise,” he said. “I hear it a lot by different artists, and I’m always glad.”

The song was also recorded by Dead Kennedys, Sam Neely, and The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. Curtis called the song his most important copyright.

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Photo by Don Paulsen/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images