Silver Bells - Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys (1938)

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A bandleader, fiddler, singer, and songwriter, James Robert Wills (1905-1975) is the most famous exponent of the popular musical amalgam now known as western swing, which synthesized ragtime, traditional fiddling, New Orleans jazz, blues, Mexican songs, and big band swing. Wills blended it all into a swinging dance music that was wildly popular in the Southwest and on the West Coast from the 1930s into the 1950s. His greatest success was with his Texas Playboys band while based at KVOO in Tulsa, Oklahoma, between 1934 and 1942. Today his compositions, such as "Faded Love," "Maiden's Prayer," "Take Me Back to Tulsa," and "San Antonio Rose," are considered standards of country and pop music.

- Adapted from the Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum's Encyclopedia of Country Music, published by Oxford University Press.

"Silver Bells" (arr. B. Wills); Recorded November 28, 1938, Dallas: Bob Wills, fiddle; Leon McAuliffe, steel guitar; Eldon Shamblin, lead and rhythm guitar; Herman Arnspiger, guitar; Johnnie Lee Wills, banjo; Jesse Ashlock and Sleepy Johnson, fiddles; Al Stricklin, piano; Son Lansford, bass; Smoky Dacus, drums