Sonny Throckmorton
Musician · b. 1941 · Carlsbad, New Mexico
Best known for
Songwriter
Sonny Throckmorton is a New Mexico-born Texas-raised Nashville country songwriter whose more than one thousand recorded songs include “Middle Age Crazy” (a 1977 Top-5 country hit for Jerry Lee Lewis), “If We’re Not Back in Love by Monday” (Merle Haggard, 1977), and “I’m Knee Deep in Loving You” (Dave & Sugar, 1977). He was named Nashville Songwriters Association International’s Songwriter of the Year three years in a row, 1978–80.
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- Born James Fron “Sonny” Throckmorton on April 2, 1941, in Carlsbad, New Mexico, the son of a Pentecostal preacher; grew up in Texas.
- Played in San Francisco rock clubs through the early 1960s before moving to Nashville in 1964.
- Placed his first Top-Ten with Bobby Lewis’s 1966 recording of “How Long Has It Been.”
- Was dropped from his Tree Publishing writing deal and returned to Texas disillusioned in the mid-1970s; was back six months when Tree president Buddy Killen called to say his songs had suddenly started selling.
- Scored Top-Five country hits in 1977 with Dave & Sugar’s “I’m Knee Deep in Loving You” (No. 2), Merle Haggard’s “If We’re Not Back in Love by Monday” (No. 2), and Jerry Lee Lewis’s “Middle Age Crazy” (No. 4).
- Named Nashville Songwriters Association International Songwriter of the Year in 1978 and 1979; named the BMI Country Songwriter of the Year in 1980; named the BMI Country Songwriter of the Year in 1980.
- More than 1,000 of his songs have been recorded by country acts including George Strait, Merle Haggard, T.G. Sheppard, Conway Twitty, the Oak Ridge Boys, and Dave & Sugar.
- Inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1985.
- Retired to his Texas ranch in 1988 to care for his ailing father.
