Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys was the band of Bob Wills, the man regarded as the founder of western swing. Wills founded the group in 1934, after periods with various bands and radio stations in the South and West. The first line-up consisted of Wills on fiddle, Tommy Duncan on piano and vocals, the rhythm guitarist June Whalin, the tenor banjo player Johnnie Lee Wills and Kermit Whalin on steel guitar and bass. The band played regularly on the radio station KVOO in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Music and breakthrough

In 1937 the guitarist Eldon Shamblin joined, bringing jazz influences and arrangements. Later came Leon McAuliffe on steel guitar, the pianist Al Stricklin, the drummer Smokey Dacus and a horn section, which made the group sound bigger and fuller. Wills liked arrangements with a jazz colour, and the Texas Playboys became nationally known into the 1940s with Steel Guitar Rag, San Antonio Rose, Stars and Stripes on Iwo Jima and New Spanish Two Step. They recorded for Vocalion, Okeh, Columbia and MGM. In 1950 two songs were in the top ten: Ida Red Likes the Boogie and Faded Love. A recording from the 1950s appeared on the soundtrack of The Last Picture Show in 1971, and in 1974 the album For the Last Time followed.

Influence

After two heart attacks in 1962 and 1963 Wills had to disband the band, although he continued to perform solo. He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1968, and in 1999 Wills and the Texas Playboys were given a place in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The band showed that a country band with steel guitar, fiddle and horns could swing like a jazz orchestra.

Listening

Discography

Studio albums

• 1947Bob Wills Round Up
• 1971Original Sound Track: The Last Picture Show
• 1974For the Last Time