Working Backward: How Bob Wills found San Antonio Rose inside another song

Bob Wills already knew the tune.

In 1927, while working as a barber in Roy, New Mexico, Wills learned a local dance melody from musicians there. Eight years later, at his first recording session for Vocalion, he recorded it with the Texas Playboys as “Spanish Two-Step.”

Wills played the main melody on fiddle. Eighteen-year-old Leon McAuliffe took a second melodic strain on electric steel guitar. The record became one of Wills’s first major sellers. Library of Congress

Three years later, Wills and the Texas Playboys returned to the studio in Dallas. Producer Art Satherley asked for another “Spanish Two-Step.”

The Playboys went back to the earlier tune.

On “Spanish Two-Step,” Wills played the primary melody in A, and McAuliffe played the bridge in D. For the new piece, Wills began in D, and McAuliffe moved his bridge to A. Wills and members of the band later described the process as playing “Spanish Two-Step” backward.

Satherley supplied the title: “San Antonio Rose.” Library of Congress

The Texas Playboys recorded “San Antonio Rose” as an instrumental in November 1938. It became an even bigger hit than “Spanish Two-Step.” Requests for the song reached musicians outside Wills’s usual circuit, including jazz violinist Joe Venuti. Venuti and others encouraged Wills to add words. Library of Congress

Words for the Rose

The lyric credits remain disputed.

Charles Townsend, in his biography San Antonio Rose: The Life and Music of Bob Wills, wrote that Wills and several members of the band worked on the lyrics. He credited trumpeter and announcer Everett Stover with most of the final draft.

San Antonio musician Bob Symons is part of another account. A newspaper item identified Symons as the song’s author as early as 1943. His widow later maintained that he wrote the lyrics and sold them to Wills for $30. The Symons family also kept a copy of what they described as the original words.

Kevin Coffey, writing for the Library of Congress National Recording Preservation Board, found stronger support for the account given by Townsend while allowing that Symons may have contributed to the song’s development. Library of Congress

The published composition remained credited to Bob Wills.

“New San Antonio Rose”

Wills recorded the song again in Fort Worth in April 1940.

By then, the Texas Playboys had grown into a large orchestra with reed and brass sections alongside the instruments associated with a Western band. Guitarist Eldon Shamblin wrote a horn arrangement for the session. Tommy Duncan sang the lyric. Wills’s fiddle and McAuliffe’s steel guitar sat out the recording. Library of Congress

The record was released as “New San Antonio Rose.”

The arrangement gave the song a broad orchestral sweep while keeping the phrasing and character of Wills’s Southwestern dance music. The Library of Congress describes the recording as big-band swing with a romantic, mariachi flavor. Library of Congress

Bing Crosby recorded “New San Antonio Rose” with Bob Crosby and His Orchestra for Decca in 1940. His recording carried the song further into American popular music. The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History holds a copy of that release in its collection. Smithsonian Institution

“San Antonio Rose” became the centerpiece of Wills’s repertoire and entered the songbooks of performers across country, pop, blues, and rock and roll. In 2003, the Library of Congress selected the 1940 recording of “New San Antonio Rose” for the National Recording Registry. Library of Congress

Then it went into space.

Twelve Hours Out

Apollo 12 lifted off for the Moon on November 14, 1969.

About twelve hours into the flight, the NASA air-to-ground transcript records a simple notation:

“Music - ‘San Antonio Rose’”

A few moments later, commander Pete Conrad told Mission Control, “Al’s getting homesick up here; we’re just trying to keep him happy.” NASA

Al was lunar module pilot Alan Bean. He had grown up in Fort Worth and graduated from Paschal High School there before studying aeronautical engineering at the University of Texas. NASA

One of Western swing’s defining songs began with Bob Wills reaching back to a tune he already knew.

Thirty-one years later, it was playing aboard a spacecraft headed for the Moon.

References

Boyd, Jean A. The Jazz of the Southwest: An Oral History of Western Swing. University of Texas Press, 1998. University of Texas Press

Coffey, Kevin. “New San Antonio Rose: Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys (1940).” National Recording Preservation Board, Library of Congress. Library of Congress

Townsend, Charles R. San Antonio Rose: The Life and Music of Bob Wills. University of Illinois Press, 1976. Bibliovault

National Museum of American History. “New San Antonio Rose; It Makes No Difference Now.” Bing Crosby with Bob Crosby and His Orchestra, Decca 3590, 1940. National Museum of American History

NASA. Apollo 12 Technical Air-to-Ground Voice Transmission. November 1969.