The ‘Mary Tyler Moore Show’ Theme Song Was Written By a Punk Legend
“Punk legend” is probably not how Sonny Curtis would have described himself, but if the studded belt fits, wear it. As a member of the Crickets, as in “Buddy Holly and,” he “inspired thousands of kids to start up garage bands around the world," according to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. He also wrote “I Fought the Law,” which became a punk staple, covered by everyone from the Clash to Green Day. And yes, he also wrote one of the most uplifting themes in TV history, “Love Is All Around” from The Mary Tyler Moore Show.
It’s not really that big of a gap to bridge. Curtis was a prolific songwriter, often for artists who would be considered pretty soft-edged by today’s standards, including the Everly Brothers and Glen Campbell. “I’m No Stranger to the Rain,” a Curtis song recorded by Keith Whitley, won Single of the Year at the Country Music Association Awards in 1989. When a friend at the Williams-Price Agency, which managed Mary Tyler Moore, needed a theme song for her upcoming sitcom in 1970, he knew exactly which versatile songwriter to call.
“At his lunch break, he dropped off a four-page treatment that one of the writers or somebody had put together,” Curtis told The Los Angeles Times in 2017. “Like, ‘A young girl from the Midwest gets jilted and left at the altar,’ or something like that. ‘She’s in the big city of Minneapolis and gets a job at a news station and rents an apartment she has a hard time affording,’ that sort of thing. I wrote the song in about two hours and called him back and said, ‘Who do I sing this to?’”
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He ended up in James L. Brooks’ office, where it turned out Brooks wasn’t actually looking for a song just yet but liked what he heard and promised to “take (it) to Minneapolis with me over the weekend.” (That was back when at least some parts of TV shows were actually filmed where they were set; Brooks wasn’t just planning a ski trip.)
Of course, Curtis’ friend’s overenthusiasm paid off, and “Love Is All Around” became the show’s theme. Curtis later expressed pride in his contribution to a show that became so important to the feminist movement, telling the Times that “that was at the beginning of the women’s liberation movement and Gloria Steinem and all those people were coming on pretty strong. I think they all identified with that show.”
We stan an unproblematic king.
Curtis went on to a full career of performing and publishing, working his way into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame and Musicians Hall of Fame in addition to the big one, before dying of pneumonia on September 19, 2025 at the age of 88.
If nothing else, he definitely made it after all.
