Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Sunbonnet Sue
2. Nancy Jane
3. Osage Stomp
4. Get With It
5. I Can't Give You Anything But Love
6. Spanish Two Step
7. Maiden's Prayer
8. Wang Wang Blues
9. St. Louis Blues
10. Good Old Oklahoma
11. Blue River
12. Mexicali Rose
13. I Ain't Got Nobody
14. Never No More Blues
15. Who Walks in When I Walk Out
16. Old Fashioned Love
17. Oklahoma Rag
18. Black and Blue Rag
19. Sitting on Top of the World
20. Four or Five Times
21. I Can't Be Satisfied
22. Smith's Reel
23. Harmony
24. Tulsa Waltz
25. Waltz in D

Disc 2:

1. She's Killing Me
2. Weary of the Same Ol' Stuff
3. No Matter How She Done It
4. Bluin' the Blues
5. Steel Guitar Rag
6. Get Along Home, Cindy
7. Trouble in Mind
8. What's the Matter With the Mill?
9. Sugar Blues
10. Basin Street Blues
11. Red Hot Gal of Mine
12. Darktown Strutters' Ball
13. Too Busy
14. (Back Home Again In) Indiana
15. Away Out There
16. Crippled Turkey
17. Fan It
18. Red Head
19. Mean Mama Blues
20. There's No Disappointment in Heaven
21. Rockin' Alone (In an Old Rockin' Chair)
22. Sleepy Time in Sleepy Hollow
23. Bring It on Down to My House Honey
24. I've Got the Wonder Where She Went (Blues)
25. Right or Wrong
26. Swing Blues No. 1
27. Swing Blues No. 2

Disc 3:

1. White Heat
2. Dedicated to You
3. Playboy Stomp
4. Steel Guitar Stomp
5. Rosetta
6. Bleeding Hearted Blues
7. T for Texas (Blue Yodel No. 1)
8. Tulsa Stomp
9. Tie Me to Your Apron Strings Again
10. Never No More Hard Times Blues
11. Sunbonnet Sue
12. New St. Louis Blues
13. Loveless Love
14. I'm a Ding Dong Daddy
15. Oozlin' Daddy Blues
16. Black Rider
17. Everybody Does It in Hawaii
18. Alexander's Ragtime Band
19. Blue Prelude
20. Downhearted Blues
21. Little Heaven of the Seven Seas
22. Sophisticated Hula
23. Pray for the Lights to Go Out
24. Gambling Polka Dot Blues
25. Keep Knockin' (But You Can't Come In)
26. Loveless Love
27. Oh, Lady Be Good
28. Way Down Upon the Swanee River
29. Don't Stop Loving Me
30. Oh You Beautiful Doll

Disc 4:

1. Moonlight and Roses
2. William Tell
3. I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate
4. Mississippi Delta Blues
5. Tulsa Stomp
6. Empty Bed Blues
7. Little Red Head
8. I'll See You in My Dreams
9. San Antonio Rose
10. Little Girl, Go Ask Your Mama
11. Carolina in the Morning
12. Convict and the Rose
13. Silver Bells (That Ring in the Night)
14. Dreamy Eyes Waltz
15. Beaumont Rag
16. Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star
17. If I Could Bring Back My Buddy
18. Whoa Babe
19. Ida Red
20. Yearning (Just for You)
21. I Wonder if You Feel the Way I Do
22. Prosperity Special
23. Drunkard's Blues
24. You're Okay
25. Liza Pull Down the Shades
26. That's What I Like About the South
27. My Window Faces the South
28. Waltz You Saved for Me
29. Don't Let the Deal Go Down

Disc 5:

1. You Don't Love Me (But I'll Always Care)
2. No Wonder
3. Lone Star Rag
4. There's Going to Be a Party (For the Old Folks)
5. I Don't Love Nobody
6. That Brownskin Gal
7. Corrine, Corrina
8. Let Me Call You Sweetheart
9. Blue Bonnet Rag
10. Time Changes Everything
11. Medley of Spanish Waltzes: La Golondrina/Lady of Spain/Cielito Lindo
12. Bob Wills Special
13. Big Beaver
14. New San Antonio Rose
15. Wait 'Til You See
16. Liebestraum
17. Lyla Lou
18. New Worried Mind
19. Paloma
20. Maiden's Prayer
21. Oh! You Pretty Woman
22. I Found a Dream
23. Girl I Left Behind Me
24. I Knew the Moment I Lost You
25. Done and Gone
26. Twin Guitar Special
27. Mississippi Delta Blues
28. Take Me Back to Tulsa
29. Takin' It Home

Disc 6:

1. I'm Sorry We Said Goodbye
2. Honey What You Gonna Do?
3. Blue Bonnet Lane
4. Bob Wills Stomp
5. Li'l Liza Jane
6. Please Don't Leave Me
7. Don't Count Your Chickens
8. Cherokee Maiden
9. New San Antonio Rose
10. Ride On! (My Prairie Pinto)
11. Got a Letter from My Kid Today
12. It's All Your Fault
13. Goodnight Little Sweetheart
14. Dusty Skies
15. My Life's Been a Pleasure
16. We Might as Well Forget It
17. Drop Us Off at Bob's Place
18. Home in San Antone
19. That Hot Lick Fiddlin' Man
20. Liberty
21. Miss Molly
22. It Never Can Be
23. Honeymoon Trail
24. It Seems Like Yesterday
25. You're from Texas
26. Goodbye Liza Jane

Disc 7:

1. My Confession
2. Ten Years
3. This Little Rosary
4. When It's Honeysuckle Time in the Valley
5. Let's Ride With Bob
6. My Laddie
7. Whose Heart Are You Breaking Now?
8. Hang Your Head in Shame
9. Smoke on the Water
10. Texas Playboy Rag
11. Bluer Than Blue
12. Hang Your Head in Shame
13. Smoke on the Water
14. Texas Playboy Rag
15. Bluer Than Blue
16. Roly Poly
17. Roly Poly
18. Frankie Jean
19. You Don't Care What Happens to Me
20. Stay a Little Longer
21. You Should Have Thought of That Before
22. I Can't Go on This Way
23. I'm Thru Wastin' Time on You
24. Easy Rockin' Chair
25. Just a Plain Old Country Boy

Disc 8:

1. Stars and Stripes on Iwo Jima
2. Silver Dew on the Bluegrass Tonight
3. I'm So Glad I Met You
4. New Spanish Two-Step
5. Empty Chair at the Christmas Table
6. I'm Feelin' Bad
7. White Cross on Okinawa
8. This Is Southland
9. Cotton Eyed Joe
10. Cotton Eyed Joe
11. Staccato Waltz
12. Punkin' Stomp
13. Sugar Moon
14. Rose of Old Pawnee
15. How Can It Be Wrong
16. Brain Cloudy Blues
17. Bob Wills Boogie
18. There's a Big Rock in the Road
19. I Got a Cinder in My Eye
20. Go to Sleep Our Baby
21. Virginia
22. I'm Gonna Be Boss from Now On
23. Fat Boy Rag
24. Drum Test - Bob Wills
25. Kind of Love I Can't Forget
26. There's Two Sides to Every Story

Disc 9:

1. Devil Ain't Lazy
2. Sweet Kind of Love
3. Hometown Stomp
4. Cowboy Stomp
5. Misery
6. Down in My Neck of the Woods
7. Bob Wills Schottische
8. I Just Don't Want That Kind of Love
9. Texarkana Baby
10. Good Time Cake-Walk
11. Can't Get Enough of Texas
12. You're There
13. Thanks for the Heartaches (Thanks for the Tears)
14. New Texas Playboy Rag
15. What's the Use to Take You Back Again
16. Deep Water
17. Have I Stayed Away Too Long?
18. Cimarron
19. Stardust
20. My Buddy
21. Tears on My Pillow

Disc 10:

1. Steel Guitar Rag
2. Swing Blues No. 1
3. Steel Guitar Stomp
4. Tulsa Stomp
5. Never No More Hard Times Blues
6. Oozlin' Daddy Blues
7. Black Rider
8. Everybody Does It in Hawaii
9. Alexander's Ragtime Band
10. Gambling Polka Dot Blues
11. Oh, Lady Be Good
12. Way Down Upon the Swanee River
13. Oh You Beautiful Doll
14. Lone Star Rag
15. There's Going to Be a Party (For the Old Folks)
16. I Don't Love Nobody
17. That Brownskin Gal
18. Corrine, Corrina
19. Bob Wills Special
20. Big Beaver
21. Big Beaver
22. Liebestraum
23. Lyla Lou
24. New Worried Mind
25. Girl I Left Behind Me
26. I Knew the Moment I Lost You
27. Twin Guitar Special
28. Twin Guitar Special
29. Takin' It Home

Disc 11:

1. Blue Bonnet Lane
2. Blue Bonnet Lane
3. Li'l Liza Jane
4. Ride On! (My Prairie Pinto)
5. It's All Your Fault
6. Miss Molly
7. Miss Molly
8. It Never Can Be
9. Roly Poly
10. You Don't Care What Happens to Me
11. Stay a Little Longer
12. You Should Have Thought of That Before
13. New Spanish Two-Step
14. I'm Feelin' Bad
15. This Is Southland
16. Punkin' Stomp
17. How Can It Be Wrong
18. Brain Cloudy Blues
19. Virginia
20. I'm Gonna Be Boss from Now On
21. There's Two Sides to Every Story
22. Devil Ain't Lazy
23. Hometown Stomp
24. Misery
25. Down in My Neck of the Woods
26. I Just Don't Want That Kind of Love
27. Good Time Cake-Walk
28. Can't Get Enough of Texas
29. New Texas Playboy Rag
30. Village Blacksmith - Slim Andrews, Tex Ritter
31. Good Old Oklahoma - The Texas Playboys
32. Kalamity Kate - Tex Ritter, The Texas Playboys
33. Lone Star Rag/Playboy Special - The Texas Playboys
34. Gone Indian - The Texas Playboys
35. Take Me Back to Tulsa - Tex Ritter, The Texas Playboys
36. You Are My Sunshine - Tex Ritter, The Texas Playboys

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #439449 in Music
• Released on: 2000-12-13
• Format: Box set

Album Description
11 CD's plus a DVD and book.

Customer Reviews

Best Box of 2000, and one of the best ever
I have about 100 box sets in various genres, but this new Bob Wills set from Bear Family soars to the top of the list, dwarfing rivals for its historical importance, its packaging, its absolutely exquisite mastering of vintage source material and a wealth of previously unheard material, its thorough discography ... and on top of all that, a DVD! Bear Family is one of the world's most distinguished compilers of great music past and present, but they really put their heart and soul into this one. It merits a Grammy nomination and any other award that can be bestowed. This magnificent work of Bob Wills' 12-year run at Columbia has previously been scattered across myriad compilations, always incomplete and usually in substandard sound. But this box ends that frustration for Wills fans and then some. Wow, what a piece of work. Everything beyond provided 1936 sounds like it was recorded last week, the sound is that good, and that encompasses disc 2 through 11. More than 260 tracks, and two discs of alternate takes are saved for the end. Alternates usually don't add much, but Wills and his band often played hotter than on the master takes, and Bob is frequently more animated. These are a sheer joy. That's not to say the wealth of masters here aren't thoroughly enjoyable. If you want to know why Bob Wills is in the Rock and Roll and Country Hall of Fames -- and should be in the Jazz Hall of Fame -- this box will reveal it all to you. If you own this box and the 9 volumes of the Tiffany Transcriptions, you have most of the great Bob Wills. And despite the hefty price, this box is a bargain for everything you get. In addition to the splendid swing music, which goes through several evolutions, you get a remarkable hardbound book stuffed with accurate info by country authority Rich Kienzle and a boatload of great pictures and placards. This is how a box set is supposed to be done, that with few exceptions American record companies have yet to figure out to provide the most avid musical consumers. Fortunately, we have companies like Bear Family and Mosaic that understand the value of completeness and mastering competence in putting together sets like this. Beyond seminal for Wills fans. Trade in all your old LPs and discs and buy this immediately.

Classic Early Recordings of Bob Wills & the Texas Playboys
So you say you love Western Swing? Well, its put up or shut time with the release of this massive, 11 CD and 1 DVD set of the early recordings of the great Bob Wills & the Texas Playboys. As usual, the German Bear Family Records have done a great job of preserving America's musical heritage.

For those unfamiliar with Wills, he was a Texas-born fiddler who combined Texas fiddle tunes, cowboy songs, jazz and blues to create a musical form that we now call Western Swing. Wills' Texas Playboys and one-time bandmate Milton Brown & his Musical Brownies were the two groundbreaking groups in this genre, and in the mid-1930's both groups began to perform and record in this exciting and original style. Brown died in 1936, but Wills' career lasted into the '70's, filling dancefloors throughout the Southwest and California, and influencing scores of younger musicians, including Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson, Asleep At the Wheel and Doug Sahm.

Although often categorized as country music, Western Swing only share instrumentation with country. More accurately, its swing-style jazz and pop, played by a group that heavily featured fiddles, steel guitar and occasionally horns. These were dancebands, the Texas equivalent of the big bands that were popular in the '30's and '40's. This music was wildly popular in Texas and Oklahoma and, after Depression and World War II migration, in California as well.

Wills made his first recordings in 1929, but his recording career began in earnest in the mid-'30's, when he was signed to the predecessor of Columbia Records. He recorded for the company extensively fir the next dozen years, and all of those recordings are included in this beautiful package. To be truthful, there is some filler here; like many bands of the time, Wills recorded his share of mediocre pop tunes. But most of these recordings are brilliant, a balance of Wills' background as a fiddler who performed for ranch dances and the other musical forms he loved so much.

Wills himself played "lead fiddle", but he deferred to more jazz-oriented fiddle players in his group for the solo work. The Texas Playboys had some tremendous musicians in their ranks, such as steel guitarist Leon McAuliffe, pianist Al Stricklin and fiddler Jesse Ashlock. All are in their prime here.

For some reason, Sony Music and its predecessors have re-released only a small portion of Wills' work from this golden era, and even less has been reissued on CD. What has been reissued has often suffered from substandard sound. Going from famine to feast, Bear Family now makes it all available, plus a few radio performances and a DVD of a Wills film (He and his band appeared in numerous Westerns in the early to mid '40's). This is much more Bob Wills than the casual fan will want. Still, this is some of the greatest music of the last century, and completists will want "San Antonio Rose" in their collection. As one would expect from Bear Family, the sound on these CD's is excellent. The collection includes an excellent hardcover book which includes an informative and thoughtful essay, session notes and discography, as well as a stunning collection of photos, including some this long-time fan has never seen before. I can not imagine how this set could be any better than it is.

Bob Wills box
SAN ANTONIO ROSE -Bob Wills & the Texas Playboys Bear Family 11 CD/1 DVD boxed set

This 11 CD, 1 DVD boxed set contains the complete Bob Wills recordings from 1932 to 1947, available in one package for the first time. Beautifully remasterd, there are nearly 300 songs, some previously unissued, beginning with Bob's first work with Milton Brown. Each CD contains well over an hour of music. The DVD contains the Tex Ritter movie TAKE ME BACK TO OKLAHOMA from 1940, with 7 songs from the film. The addition of the DVD to this package was a stroke of genius, as it allows you to see Wills and the Playboys at work. His actions on stage and on screen helped communicate his vitality and his love of the music; he lived it, and audiences couldn't help but get caught up in the excitement. With the DVD you can watch the film, with its crystal clear image, go straight to your favorite song or watch/listen to the songs. Bob and the band appeared in films with Ken Curtis, Charles Starrett, Glenn Ford, Penny Singleton and quite a few with Russell Hayden. These are beautifully illustrated with stills and color lobby cards in a remarkable 184 page book written by Rich Kienzle. The book also contains a detailed history, analyses of a number of songs and a discography. But the music is the primary element in this box, that wonderful music that, to this day, sets the standard for the genre. The original vesions of the big hits are here. You also hear different versions of Bob's band as it evolved over the years. Most of Bob's hits featured twin fiddles, steel and his amazing rhythm section led by rhythm guitarist Eldon Shamblin. But one of of Wills' main sources of inspiration was the big band sound, and you'll hear plenty of his big band arrangements in this package. Wills could more than hold his own with his swingin' urban cousins and he even did a couple of sweet band numbers as well. Some of his intros sound much like Count Basie's, e.g. "Roly Poly," and listen to his swingin' "Whose Heart are You Breaking Now?" contrasted with the sweet arrangements of "This Little Rosary" and "My Laddie." Although the last recording session represented here took place in 1947, releases from these years continued into 1948, '49 and beyond. His 3 most legendary steel guitarists, Leon MacAuliffe, Noel Boggs and Herb Remington are well represented, as are his vocalists, with emphasis on the master,Tommy Duncan. This set is the perfect centerpiece for any western swing collection! Highly recommenned!