When The Mary Tyler Moore Show ran for seven seasons on CBS, it became one of the most popular sitcoms of all time. Four years after her breakthrough role on The Dick Van Dyke Show, Moore built upon her legacy as the star of the CBS series about a career-focused, independent woman living in the city. The show won 29 Emmy Awards during its seven-season run and is widely regarded as one of the greatest TV shows of all time. Almost as beloved as the series itself is its theme song “Love is All Around,” which was written and sung by Sonny Curtis.
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Meet the Writer Behind “Love Is All Around”
Born on May 9, 1937, in Meadow, Texas, Sonny Curtis had a storied music career long before he wrote one of the most famous TV theme songs of all time. Curtis got his start in music as a friend of singer Buddy Holly, performing as a session musician on some of Holly’s studio recordings for Decca Records in 1956, and playing guitar on such songs as “Blue Days, Black Nights,” the B-side to Holly’s debut single, “Love Me.”
Holly formed his backing band, the Crickets, in 1957 with Jerry Allison and Joe B. Mauldin. Though not an official band member at the time, Curtis did play guitar on Holly’s signature hit, “That’ll Be the Day,” which topped the Billboard Hot 100 in 1957 and was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1998.
Curtis officially joined the Crickets in 1958, shortly before Holly’s tragic death in a plane crash in 1959. In their brief time together, Curtis wrote “Rock Around With Ollie Vee” and played in Holly’s band when he opened for Elvis Presley, among other accomplishments. Following Holly’s death, Curtis remained with the Crickets, who were at the time fronted by lead singer Earl Sinks. Curtis briefly stepped away from the band when he was drafted in 1959, but returned in 1960.
Prior to his departure, the Crickets recorded “I Fought the Law,” which was written solely by Curtis and recorded for their 1960 album, In Style With the Crickets. It became a top 10 hit not only for the band but also for The Clash and Hank Williams Jr. when they both recorded it in 1978. Roy Orbison, Bruce Springsteen, Waylon Jennings, and Green Day are among the many vast-ranging artists who’ve covered the song across decades.
In 1961, Curtis had another hit as a songwriter when The Everly Brothers cut “Walk Right Back,” which hit the top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 that same year. From the 1960s through the 1980s, Curtis was in and out of the Crickets while embarking on a solo career. One of the songs he wrote and released during that time was “Love Is All Around,” the theme song to The Mary Tyler Moore Show that debuted in 1970.
“Love Is All Around” The Mary Tyler Moore Show
Curtis had a friend who worked for an entertainment agency at the time who informed him that a sitcom starring Mary Tyler Moore was in the works and the writers needed a theme song. His friend then sent a four-page treatment with a synopsis of the show about a young woman who moves from a small town in the midwest to the city of Minneapolis and gets a job at a news station and lives in an apartment that she struggles to afford. It was the last detail that inspired Curtis as a songwriter.
“I honed in on the part that she rented an apartment that she had a hard time affording,” he explains in a 2022 interview with CBS Sunday Morning. He then wrote the opening lines how will you make it on your own? / This world is awfully big, girl this time you’re all alone. Curtis’ friend connected him with one of the show’s executive producers, James L. Brooks, who said they weren’t ready to pick a theme song at that point but would listen to Curtis’ pitch. The songwriter then pulled out his guitar and performed the song live for Brooks.
“He smiled and said ‘sing that again,'” Curtis recalls of Brooks’ reaction. “There was a black telephone on the floor and he got on that telephone and started calling people and I had to sing it about 10 times before I left that afternoon. The room was full of people standing all around the walls.” When Brooks said he needed a cassette player to record the song, Curtis thought, “I believe I got a shot at this.”
His instincts were correct. “Love Is All Around” became the song fans heard at the start of each episode. Curtis released “Love Is All Around” as a single in 1970 and reissued it in 1980 on his album of the same name. The song peaked inside the top 30 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart that same year.
In 2012, the Crickets were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. In 1991, Curtis was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, followed by the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville in 2007.
Photo by CBS Photo Archive/Getty Images
