Bob Wills hit was result of quick thinking
This week in 1944: Three scientists published a report identifying DNA as the hereditary agent in a virus; U.S. Air Force announced production of the first jet fighter: Bell P59 Aracomet; FDR presented a $99.7 billion war budget; and a musician/bandleader from Kosse, Texas, had a hit record with a song that was created by playing another song backwards!
Very few songs are ever played backwards much less written backward, but according to Bob Wills, one of his biggest hits came about as a result of playing another song backward
During one of his recording sessions, A & R man Art Satherly told Wills, “Bob, give me another ‘ Spanish Two Step.’ You got one?” Wills replied, “We sure have.” All the boys in the band looked at him and said, “We haven’t got one.”
Wills told them, “Oh, yes, we do. We’ll just play “Spanish Two Step’ backwards.’ What I actually meant was, you see, I started “Spanish Two Step’ in A and then threw it to Leon McAuliff. He went to D on the bridge part of it. So what I had in mind (was that) I’d start off in D. Do you know how much time we spent on the music part of ‘ San Antonio Rose?’ I very seriously doubt if we spent more than five minutes because we ran over it for the second time, and he said, ‘That sounds good, Bob.’
“We weren’t ready, but I said, ‘OK, let’s catch it.’ And then I thought how silly can a man be to call more or less a breakdown tune ‘San Antonio Rose.’ But he wanted to call it that and I didn’t argue with him. And later on I put the words to the song.”
“San Antonio Rose” was a hit for Wills in 1941. He re-recorded it as “New San Antonio Rose” in January 1944 and it peaked at No. 3.
Wills placed 26 songs on the country music charts between 1944 and 1976.
He was inducted into The Country Music Hall Of Fame in 1968 and awarded The Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1007.
Wills died in 1975.
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