When Sonny gets Blue...it's not because of a Royalty Check

Oh, that lucky Sonny Curtis.

You see, he wrote "The Mary Tyler Moore" theme.

Since it involves use on a TV show, and how many times it's re-run, the song is immune from piracy.

Sonny only wrote one other song anybody's ever heard of, "I Fought the Law." You can bet he doesn't get THAT much of a royalty check off that one, especially since there aren't many radio stations anymore, and GooTube and Spotty Pie pay mere pennies for every THOUSAND hits.

If someone doesn't want to discuss royalties, you can bet it either is because the amount is embarrassingly small, or, heh heh, embarrassingly BIG. As in, "Don't come around asking me for donations, or loans..."

There was a brief "golden era" for songwriters, I think. It was maybe 15 years, from 1963 to 1978. Radio stations were big. Payola had been outlawed (at least, blatant payola). Cigar-chomping publishers no longer pushed newcomers around with "OK, here's $50, sign away all rights" or "Sign this; I get 50% of the publishing" or "The singer wants a co-write, give it to him or you'll never work in this business."

Yes, having learned from all the horror stories, which included discovering that the authors (and even performers) of hit songs were driving cabs or pushing brooms and not getting royalties at all, songwriters were able to avoid the outrageous victimization of the early days.

I recall hearing about some guy who wrote a mild (maybe Top 10 or Top 20, definitely not #1) hit, and he was able to buy a house with the profits. Each year there might be enough to pay for repairs to that house!

But into the 80's the songwriting market was fucked, because so many singers wrote their own songs, and a few creepy singers revived the old tactic of buying a song outright.

Guys like Sonny Curtis were fortunate, in that a lot of C&W guys, as well as early rockers, couldn't write a song at all...and that there was still something called a "TV theme." Today, not so much, right? But in the 60's and even into the 70's, there were tons of shows with a song for a TV theme.

Can you name a catchy TV theme song on a show that's been on the air in the past 20 years? I sure can't. How many even have lyrics?

You might say Sonny was "born at the right time." He's now 79. Mary died at 80.