JERRY FULLER,
1938-2024

Jerry Fuller, a prolific songwriter and producer, died of complications from lung cancer on 7/18 at the age of 85. He passed away at home in Sherman Oaks, surrounded by family and loved ones.

Fuller’s bounty of hit songs, many of them chart-toppers, included “Travelin’ Man” for Ricky Nelson, “Lady Willpower” and “Young Girl” for Gary Puckett & the Union Gap and “Show and Tell” for Al Wilson. In addition to producing such classics as The Knickerbockers’ “Lies,” Mark Lindsay’s “Arizona” and O.C. Smith’s “Little Green Apples,” Fuller helmed all of Puckett’s hits, starting with 1967’s “Woman, Woman.” The following year, the group outsold The Beatles in the U.S.

“What can I say about a guy whose vision defined my musical identity and destiny,” Puckett wrote in tribute to his friend and mentor. “What can ANYONE say about a man who gave SO much to SO many through his talents and efforts in the world of music. Thank you, Jerry! The world was a better place with you in it.”

Fuller also had a short career as a recording artist, releasing a lone solo album and several modestly charting singles in a pop-rockabilly vein in 1959-61, before he found far greater success writing and producing.

Nelson recorded nearly two dozen of Fuller’s songs, starting with “Travelin’ Man,” which Fuller demoed with his good friend Glen Campbell, followed by hits including “Young World,” “It’s Up to You” and “A Wonder Like You.”

Fuller was born on 11/19, 1938, in Fort Worth to parents who passed along their love of singing to their four kids. At 11, Jerry and his older brother Bill became a duo, The Fuller Bros., singing a cappella at local engagements.

He moved to Los Angeles in 1959, singing on demos and getting “Travelin’ Man” to Nelson before heading to New York, where he discovered and signed The Knickerbockers. After two years in the Army, he returned to L.A., where he produced “Lies.”

In the ’70s, Fuller took a job at Columbia, where he signed Mac Davis, wrote for Ray Price and Reba McEntire and produced Johnny Mathis.

Among the singers who recorded Fuller’s songs—1,100 in all—were Gene Vincent, Bobby Vee, James Darren, Lawrence Welk, Lou Rawls, The Ventures, The Kingston Trio, Roy Clark, Cher, Ray Charles, Frankie Laine, Lynn Anderson, Pat Boone, Engelbert Humperdinck, The Lettermen and Percy Sledge.

Fuller is survived by his wife, Annette, and their children, Adam Lee and Anna Nicole.