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He was found by his mother. In the heat of July 1966, surrounded by the luxurious greenery of Los Angeles, Eva Loraine Fuller\u2019s 23-year-old son, Bobby Fuller<\/a>, lay motionless in the front seat of the family car in front of his apartment. Other than his maimed face \u2014 covered in odd heat spots, completely doused in gasoline (but not burned) \u2014 and dried blood stains crusting his shirt, Fuller had no other confirmed major injuries. The car had been there for less than an hour, but Fuller had been dead for over a day<\/a>. No official cause of death was given, and the police didn\u2019t seem eager to find one<\/a>. The police chief had died of a heart attack two days prior, and cases like Fuller\u2019s were shelved in the chaos. And just like that, Fuller quietly faded from public memory, and the man who was destined for stardom instead received an unceremonious burial in Hollywood Hills.\u00a0<\/p>\n Only a few months prior, the El Paso native had scored a Top 10 hit with his group, The Bobby Fuller Four, titled \u201cI Fought The Law<\/a>.\u201d An upbeat rockabilly tune bathed in tight harmonies that rise over Fuller\u2019s passionate vocals, the song is also carried by the surf guitar that freely glides and bounces around the song like someone zipping around corners in a chase sequence. The drums even mimic bullet fire at one point. In the midst of it all, Fuller details a grim narrative: \u201cI needed money cause \/ I had none \/ I fought the law \/ And the law won!\u201d<\/p>\n The song was originally sung by The Crickets<\/a>, a band led by Buddy Holly<\/a>, who was Fuller\u2019s biggest musical inspiration. In Fuller\u2019s interpretation, you can hear the nasally, hiccup-y inflections inspired by Holly, a fellow Texan who was one of rock\u2019s earliest stars. However, The Crickets didn\u2019t write or record this song until after Holly died in a plane crash in his prime. At 22 years old, Holly\u2019s career was cut short in a field in Iowa in 1959 \u2014 the day the music died<\/a> \u2014 only two years after his first hit. Yet, as Fuller sings his cover, a song born in the embers of Holly\u2019s charred ashes, his vocal optimism is unmistakable. It\u2019s easy as a listener to really believe that he\u2019ll be able to escape the clutches of the law, that one more slick riff will earn him the right to freedom.<\/p>\n Yet just like Holly, Fuller never lived to see his mid-twenties. But, unlike Holly, his death has become a footnote rather than a notable event in music history. Aside from The Clash scoring a hit with the same song<\/a> in 1979, which functions as the primary way people in the modern day discover his existence, Fuller\u2019s life is usually only indulged by baby boomers of the era or by music nerds that stumble upon his story. Although, perhaps, it\u2019s more accurate to say that people stumble upon his end<\/em>, not his career.<\/p>\n However brief his time in the spotlight was (about a year and a half) Fuller was a professional musician for closer to eight years, and the Bobby Fuller Four had been playing gigs since 1962, before the British Invasion had even taken hold. Their discography includes, admittedly, several other Buddy Holly covers, the best of which is the tongue-in-cheek \u201cLove\u2019s Made A Fool Of You<\/a>,\u201d but also plenty of solid tunes penned by Fuller himself, proving his potential as a songwriter. \u201cAnother Sad And Lonely Night<\/a>\u201d is a catchy heartache-driven romp not unlike a song you might hear on one of the Beatles\u2019 earlier albums. \u201cTake My Word<\/a>\u201d is exuberant in its sound but resigned in its words, warning the listener to not make the same mistakes in love as the singer has. In a mellow shift, \u201cA New Shade Of Blue<\/a>\u201d contains heavy admissions of struggles with depression in the aftermath of a volatile breakup: \u201cNow I know what it\u2019s like to cry \/ what it\u2019s like to want to die \/ Painted on my heart \/ is a new shade of blue.\u201d Through it all remains Fuller\u2019s undeniable vocal power and a consistent ability to create an entire atmosphere within a deceptively simple framework.<\/p>\n