Solid! -- Bob Wills

Bob Wills

Though Bob Wills didn't invent Western Swing, he certainly was its king. The hybrid genre rose to prominence in the Southwest during the early and mid-1930s, where the combination of country music and contemporary sounds attracted audiences who would not otherwise have been taken in by the big band craze. Out of the many Western Swing orchestras only Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys emerged to reach national prominence, scoring several pop hits in the early 1940s with their innovative sound.

Born outside of Kosse, Texas, in 1905, Wills learned to play mandolin, guitar and fiddle from his father and grandfather and regularly performed at local dances as a youth. In 1929 he joined a medicine show in Fort Worth, where he played fiddle and did blackface comedy. At one performance he met guitarist Herman Arnspiger and the duo formed the Wills Fiddle Band. Within a year they were playing dances and radio stations around Fort Worth.

In early 1931 the band landed their own statewide radio show, sponsored by the manufacturers of Light Crust Flour. The group rechristened themselves the Light Crust Doughboys. By 1932 the band was a big hit throughout Texas, but trouble behind the scenes forced Wills to depart in the summer of 1933. Singer Tommy Duncan went with him, and the two relocated to Waco, Texas, where they formed the Playboys.

After floating around between radio stations, they finally found a home at KVOO in Tulsa, Oklahoma. There they began to refine their sound, adding a horn section and bringing in many of the musicians who helped make the group famous, including steel guitarist Leon McAuliffe, pianist Al Stricklin, and arranger Eldon Shamblin, who wrote most of the charts. The group made its first recording in 1935 for Columbia subsidiary ARC, the American Recording Company. They soon became the most popular orchestra in Oklahoma and Texas.

By 1940 the group had expanded to 18 pieces and was attracting large crowds throughout the Southwest and California. That same year they had their first national hit with ''New San Antonio Rose.'' The band remained popular for the next couple of years, until the war took its toll on membership. Duncan joined the Army, and Stricklin went to work at a defense plant. McAuliffe and Shamblin left the group.

Wills finally disbanded the outfit and enlisted in the Army himself in 1942 but was discharged the following year because he was out of shape and undisciplined. Duncan had also been discharged, and the two moved to California where they re-formed the Playboys, minus the horn section but with an amplified string section. The new group recorded its first single, a version of ''New San Antonio Rose,'' for Okeh Records in 1944. It became a Top Fifteen hit on the pop charts. They recorded several Top Ten country hits before switching to Columbia in 1945, where they had their biggest hit, ''New Spanish Two Step,'' which spent 16 weeks at number one.

In 1947 Shamblin returned to the group and they began recording for MGM. Though they had achieved success once again, behind the scenes the picture was not all that perfect. Wills had developed a drinking problem, and he and Duncan had begun to feud. Wills fired the singer in late 1948. Western Swing was also beginning to fall out of favor, and the group had no hits in 1949 and managed only two in 1950, including the country standard ''Faded Love.''

Wills began relocating the group to different cities, trying to find a stable market. Their popularity continued to plummet and their recordings for Decca were generally ignored. In 1959 Wills expanded the lineup and reunited with Duncan. The new band recorded for Liberty and finally began selling records and drawing crowds again. In 1962 and 1963 Wills suffered heart attacks which forced him to disband the group. He continued to work, however, making solo recordings that went unnoticed by the public. In 1969 he suffered a massive stroke which paralyzed his right side.

A Western Swing revival in the early 1970s prompted several successful Playboy reunions, with Wills leading the group from his wheelchair. Wills and country singer Merle Haggard engineered a reunion album in 1973. Wills led the first session on December 3. That night, he suffered another stroke and never regained consciousness. He died on May 15, 1975. Bob Wills is buried in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Solid!

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Bob Wills

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Bob Wills