Remembering Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys with No. 1 Hits

Few modern country music fans remember the genre of country-western, and few are still familiar with the work of Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys. Wills, the "King of Western Swing," died 40 years ago on May 13, and Music Times is hoping to maintain his legacy by listing his six no. 1 singles from the US Country Charts for your consideration, including the "New Spanish Two Step," "Sugar Moon" and more.

"Smoke On The Water" (1945)

Deep Purple wasn't the first band to have a hit with "Smoke on The Water" (although this was a completely different track of course). Wills and his band had been recording for nearly ten years at this point, and finally cracked the US Country (then called the Juke Box Folk) charts during 1944 with "New San Antonio Rose" for the historic OKeh label (it was the second time the band had released a version of the song as a single). The Playboys finally cracked no. 1 during 1945 with "Smoke," a song that had originally been recorded by Red "Mr. Country Music" Foley the previous year. Many associate country music with being the go-to genre for patriotic music nowadays but the fact was just as true circa 1945. Foley's track, and later Wills', praised the strength of the American military and predicted that the Axis powers would soon fall. It seemed that Wills may have been more accurate in his prediction: Benito Mussolini was killed two weeks after "Smoke" peaked on the charts, and Adolph Hitler would kill himself two days after that.

"Stars and Stripes on Iwo Jima" (1945)

Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys continued to be possessed by the patriotic bug during 1945, and no doubt the success of "Smoke On The Water" did nothing to dissuade them from making more songs of a similar ilk. The group would release "Stars and Stripes on Iwo Jima" as its next A-side a few months following the first no. 1, in reference to the famous Battle of Iwo Jima, which had occurred on the Pacific front about two months prior to "Smoke" being released. It's tough not to draw inspiration from Iwo Jima if that's your style...after all, the photo now titled "Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima" had been shot by Joe Rosenthal and printed by the Associated Press already, stirring the red, white and blue in all American blood. The song easily went to no. 1 on the Juke Box Folk chart.

"Silver Dew on the Blue Grass Tonight" (1945)

The Texas Playboys had its greatest year during 1945, turning out three no. 1 singles and a number of other singles that were successes on the charts (none of his six releases from that year failed to crack the Top 5). In fact, from the beginning of 1944 to mid-1948, all of the 18 singles released by Wills and his band broke the Top 5. He had clearly recognized that the songs he did in support of the war effort were gathering the most plays on jukeboxes around the nation, but he didn't want to sound like an old record (pun intended), so Wills came up with a new angle: "Silver Dew on the Blue Grass Tonight" centers on a Kentucky girl writing to her beloved, currently stationed overseas. She tempers her desire to see "silver dew on the blue grass tonight" with the patriotic "stars of gold on the old flag tonight."

"White Cross on Okinawa" (1946)

Granted, when "Silver Dew on The Blue Grass Tonight" was released, both the Axis forces in Europe and the Pacific had surrendered. Therefore, somewhat as a sequel to his previous "Stars and Stripes on Iwo Jima," Wills offered "White Cross on Okinawa," paying respect to the many who had died in the war that had just ended. "Silver Dew" would also kick off the most successful run in The Playboys' history, with the band going to no. 1 with three consecutive singles ("White Cross" being the second one). "White Cross" was the third of Wills then-four no. 1 singles that had undergone a similar coincidence: The song that it replaced on the Juke Box Folk chart would later replace it once again at no. 1. "Smoke on The Water" was sandwiched by "Shame On You" by Spade Cooley, "Stars and Stripes on Iwo Jima" by Gene Autry's "At Mail Call Today" and "White Cross" by "You Will Have To Pay" by Tex Ritter.

"New Spanish Two Step" (1946)

The last of Wills three-consecutive no. 1 songs was also the first no. 1 for the performer that had nothing to do with World War II and its aftermath. As we mentioned earlier, The Playboys had no problem revisiting concepts that hadn't flown earlier (as was the case with "New San Antonio Rose"). He went way farther back for his hit "New Spanish Two-Step" however. When Wills got started recording on the Vocalion label during 1935, he laid down "Spanish Two Step," a traditional Western swing song that Wills and The Playboys would make one of their standard songs, despite it not charting at the time. Eleven years later, at Colombia, Wills and co. would take another stab at it with "New Spanish Two Step," which peaked at no. 1. Despite it eventually being named the Juke Box Folk song of the year in 1946, the single itself was sandwiched by Al Dexter's "Guitar Polka" on the charts.

"Sugar Moon" (1947)

Two years removed from a major war, Bob Wills had gotten back to the good ol' country love ballad. "Sugar Moon" described walking with one's "sugar" beneath the aforementioned moon. Your correspondent learned while researching this song that a "sugar moon" references the time that Native Americans celebrated the first full moon of Spring. The "sugar" references the sap that they would harvest from sugar maples to be used in syrup. Either way, this song would remain at no. 1 for Wills longer than any of his other singles, staying on the top for six consecutive weeks on the Juke Box Charts during 1947.

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