I Wonder if She Waits for Me Tonight
(Bob Nolan)
“Here within my lonely room
Dreams close in, I’m leaving soon.
I wonder if she waits for me tonight.
Old-time songs we used to know
Brings her back from long ago.
I wonder if she waits for me tonight.”
Strolling down a country lane through the twilight hours.
There I found a lonely shack nestled ‘mong the flowers.
Through the window I could see an aged man in reverie
With eyes half-closed in sweet repose he sang so tenderly….
“Here within my lonely room
Dreams close in, I’m leaving soon.
I wonder if she waits for me tonight.
Old-time songs we used to know
Brings her back from long ago.
I wonder if she waits for me tonight.”
“I still recall our last farewell,
Her soft brown hair in ringlets fell
Across my arm as there I held her tight.
If an angel from the sky
Comes to close my weary eyes
Then I’ll know she waits for me tonight.”
Bob Nolan approached Lem Giles, of the
Beverly Hill Billies, to see if the two groups might exchange a few of their
unpublished tunes. Such tunes could not be used on the air without the consent
of the composer. Giles turned down each Nolan request. Finally, a frustrated
Nolan informed Giles that if he didn’t cooperate he would take one of Giles’
most popular songs, The Little Choir Boy Sings All Alone Tonight, change one
note every four bars and take credit for it. Out of that challenge came the
beautiful Nolan tune, I Wonder if She Waits for Me Tonight. (Ken Griffis, JEMF
Quarterly, Spring 1980 p 7) Unfortunately, no one has found "The Little Choir
Boy Sings All Alone Tonight" for comparison.
Two recordings were made of "I Wonder if She Waits for Me Tonight" by the Sons
of the Pioneers, both with Bob Nolan taking the solo. The one you are listening
to now is a Columbia (ARC) recording made on October 21, 1937. When they were in
Chicago in 1940, the Sons of the Pioneers made
another recording for the Victor
Thesaurus of Music Radio Transcriptions called "Symphonies of the Sage", loosely
known today as "The Orthacoustics" or "Orthas".
Below is the lyric sheet from the
hundreds the Sons of the Pioneers used for reference, beginning in the early
1930s and added to as necessary. This one is from Bob Nolan's
repertoire box:
CALIN COBURN COLLECTION IMAGE: Volume 2, #61