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"I Fought the Law" is a much-covered song originally recorded by Sonny Curtis and The Crickets (post Buddy Holly) in 1959. The song was famously covered by Bobby Fuller Four, who recorded a more successful version of the song in 1965, and by The Clash, who performed and recorded a punk rock version in 1976 and 1977.
Just as the song became a top ten hit, Bobby Fuller was found dead in a parked automobile near his Los Angeles, California home. The police considered the death an apparent suicide; "just about everyone who knew him disagreed", however, believing instead that Fuller was murdered.
The Dead Kennedys, in particular, wrote and recorded a different version as a comment on Dan White's 1978 murder of San Francisco mayor George Moscone and City Supervisor Harvey Milk, and White's subsequent use of the "Twinkie defense" to influence the court to convict him of the lesser charge of manslaughter. The song, sung from White's perspective, replaced the line "I fought the law and the law won" with "I fought the law and I won".
In 1989 during Operation Just Cause, when the U.S. Army had Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega confined to the Papal Nunciature, the Vatican's Embassy, and were attempting to flush him out. US ARMY PSYOPS Units surrounded the compound and used several psychological tactics including flood lights and loud speakers. They played music like "I Fought the Law" loudly and repeatedly from the loudspeakers. The Bobby Fuller Four version of this song is ranked #175 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
Cover Versions
It was the existence of a 45 of the Bobby Fuller version in an American studio jukebox that inspired The Clash to record a cover version of the song in 1978. Their version first appeared on the EP The Cost of Living in May 1979 in the UK, and then later in 1979 was made part of the American edition of the Clash's eponymous album. This cover version helped gain The Clash their first taste of airplay in the States and is one of the best-known cover versions of the song. The live recording of the song, performed at the Lyceum Theatre, West End, London on December 28, 1978, features as the last piece of the 1980 film Rude Boy directed by Jack Hazan and David Mingay. The Clash were dressed all in black for that gig and the song, at that stage, was considered the film's title song. In 1988, CBS Records re-issued the single (catalog number) in 7" vinyl format, with "City of the Dead" (2:24) and "1977" (1:40) as its B-side. The song is featured as a downloadable track in the music video game series Rock Band.
The song has also been performed, either in concert or on record, by the Dead Kennedys who did a version with different lyrics. Dave Courtney The London Gangster who sang alongside Scottish pop-punks Mute fronted by Jay Burnett who wrote an updated version complete with lyrics based on Dave's legendary court case. Both this and the Dead Kennedys' version are titled "I Fought the Law and I Won". Also, She Trinity, Viper, Bryan Adams, John Cougar Mellencamp, Bruce Springsteen, Roy Orbison, Tom Petty, Social Distortion, Stiff Little Fingers, Mike Ness, Hank Williams Jr, Waylon Jennings, Green Day, Ska-P, Dead Kennedys, The Ramones, Grateful Dead, Stray Cats, Mary's Danish, Claude François, Mano Negra, the Big Dirty Band, Nonstop Body/Lolita No. 18, The Brian Jonestown Massacre, The Sex Pistols, Attaque 77, Die Toten Hosen, Status Quo, Nanci Griffith, Anti-Flag, Chumbawamba and numerous other artists have covered this song live or in studio. For the 2003 film Intermission, Colin Farrell recorded a version of the song, singing it in the guise of his character in the film.
The Green Day cover version of the song was used in a television ad for Apple Computer's iTunes Store when it was first opened.
The Mary's Danish recording is featured in the film "Buffy The Vampire Slayer" (1992), and the accompanying soundtrack release "Buffy the Vampire Slayer Soundtrack".
An amended version of the song reached number 25 in the UK singles chart in January 2008. "I Fought the Lloyds" by Oystar was a comedy version in support of the campaign by Lloyds TSB customers mounting legal challenges to get their charges refunded. In this version the key line was changed to "I fought the Lloyds and Lloyds lost".
Serbian punk rock band Goblini recorded a cover version of the song featuring lyrics in Serbian language entitled "Ne mogu više" on their 1995 live album Live KST and dedicated it to former president Slobodan Milošević.
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