Letter to Discoveries magazine editor:

Todd:

July 18, 2006, marks the 40th anniversary of the death of Bobby Fuller.

More than a one hit wonder with "I Fought the Law" in 1966, Bobby Fuller helped in a very big way to further develop the distinctive West Texas regional style of rock 'n' roll and country guitar playing started a decade earlier by Buddy Holly, Buddy Knox, Roy Orbison, Tommy Alsup, Waylon Jennings, and slightly later, George Tomsco of the Fireballs.

The Bobby Fuller 4 are widely regarded as the best rock 'n' roll band in that part of the country during the first half of the 1960s.

His sudden, violent death in Hollywood, California, continues to baffle anyone who cares and remains unsolved.  Those present at the time have repeatedly sited indifference by the police department which no doubt allowed the trail to the guilty individual(s) to quickly go cold.

It is my hope that Discoveries and other similar magazines will as least note this anniversary.

Norton Records has hopes to release the third volume in its "El Paso Rocks" CD series very soon, containing home-made recordings by Bobby Fuller, partly in honor of this anniversary. (www.nortonrecords.com)

A songwriting collaborator of Bobby Fuller, Mary Stone Huffman, died on May 12, 2006, in Tucson, AZ.  During the 1960s, her son, Rick Stone, was a good friend of the Bobby Fuller and was road manager for the group for a while. Mary Stone had aspired to be a song writer and found the ambitious Bobby Fuller, though many years younger, a likely portal to professional songwriting.  Of their collaborations, the Bobby Fuller 4 recorded eight songs which have been widely heard on records and compact discs ever since.  Her name always appears on the composer credits. A memorial service for her was held in El Paso. (I refer you to the May 17, 2006, obituary column in the El Paso Times newspaper.)

The West Texas - Eastern New Mexico area has been a rich vein in rock 'n' roll and country music.  Bobby Fuller was one its best.