Bobby Fuller

Bobby Fuller stood apart from his mid-'60s peers through his open admiration for fellow Texan Buddy Holly. Playing a Stratocaster with an assertive, expansive tone, he came closest at peak moments to the sound Holly might have developed had he lived into that decade. In 1966 he reached the Top 30 via a version of Holly’s “Love’s Made a Fool of You” and climbed to the Top Ten with “I Fought the Law,” a song written by former Cricket Sonny Curtis. National recognition had only just arrived when Fuller was found dead under unexplained conditions inside a parked vehicle in Hollywood; authorities leaned toward suicide, yet nearly everyone acquainted with him rejected that conclusion.

Although his national profile lasted only briefly, it capped roughly five years of steady recording that yielded numerous strong sides. Early in the decade he issued several local singles from his El Paso base; in 1964 he relocated to California with his band and flirted momentarily with surf music before linking up with producer Bob Keene. While signed to Mustang during 1965 and 1966 he cut numerous additional tracks, most of them originals, among them “Let Her Dance,” “Another Sad and Lonely Night,” “My True Love,” “Never to Be Forgotten,” “Fool of Love,” and “The Magic Touch.” These performances were driving, melodic, and irresistibly upbeat, establishing Fuller as a natural successor to the first wave of rock & roll and rockabilly without any hint of deliberate nostalgia. Success amid the psychedelic era is difficult to envision, yet he would almost certainly have continued to turn out distinctive material. A gifted and industrious songwriter as well as an adept studio craftsman, he drew inspiration from Eddie Cochran and, to a modest degree, from the layered guitar textures of the British Invasion while remaining anchored to Buddy Holly. A substantial body of unreleased studio and live recordings surfaced in the ’80s, prompting wider recognition of the talent that had been lost.