Personalities | Bob Wills | Roots of Rock

(Bandleader, fiddle, 1905–75)

Between 1929 and 1931 Bob Wills assembled his first western-swing band, The Light Crust Doughboys, later rechristened The Texas Playboys. By 1940, with its hit single ‘New San Antonio Rose’, it was filling concert halls across the country. The band’s biggest hit, ‘New Spanish Two Step’, spent 16 weeks at No. 1. The hit ‘Faded Love’ became a standard. Wills bucked traditions to fuse two genres and create one of the most popular bands in America.

Styles & Forms | Roots of Rock
Personalities | Paul Anka | Fifties | Rock

Source: The Definitive Illustrated Encyclopedia of Rock, general editor Michael Heatley

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