James Robert Wills (March 6, 1905 – May 13, 1975), better known as Bob Will… Read Full Bio ↴James Robert Wills (March 6, 1905 – May 13, 1975), better known as Bob Wills, was an American Western swing musician, songwriter, and bandleader of Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys. Considered by music authorities as the co-founder of Western swing, he was universally known as the King of Western Swing.
Wills formed several bands and played radio stations around the South and West until he formed the Texas Playboys in 1934 with Wills on fiddle, Tommy Duncan on piano and vocals, rhythm guitarist June Whalin, tenor banjoist Johnnie Lee Wills, and Kermit Whalin, who played steel guitar and bass. The band played regularly on a Tulsa, Oklahoma radio station, and added Leon McAuliffe on steel guitar, pianist Al Stricklin, drummer Smokey Dacus, and a horn section that expanded the band's sound. Wills favored jazz-like arrangements and the band found national popularity into the 1940s with such hits as "Steel Guitar Rag", "New San Antonio Rose", "Smoke on the Water", "Stars and Stripes on Iwo Jima", and "New Spanish Two Step".
Wills and the Texas Playboys recorded with several publishers and companies, including Vocalion, Okeh, Columbia, and MGM, frequently moving. In 1950, he had two top ten hits, "Ida Red Likes the Boogie" and "Faded Love", which were his last hits for a decade. Throughout the 1950s, he struggled with poor health and tenuous finances, but continued to perform frequently despite the decline in popularity of his earlier music as rock and roll took over. Wills had a heart attack in 1962 and a second one the next year, which forced him to disband the Playboys although Wills continued to perform solo.
The Country Music Hall of Fame inducted Wills in 1968 and the Texas State Legislature honored him for his contribution to American music.[4] In 1972, Wills accepted a citation from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers in Nashville. He was recording an album with fan Merle Haggard in 1973 when a stroke left him comatose until his death in 1975. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted Wills and the Texas Playboys in 1999.

He was born near Kosse, Texas; his father was a fiddle player who along with his grandfather, taught the young Wills to play the fiddle and the mandolin. After several years of drifting, "Jim Rob," then in his 20s, attended barber school, got married, and moved first to Roy, New Mexico then to Turkey, Texas (now considered his home town) to be a barber. He alternated barbering and fiddling even when he moved to Fort Worth to pursue a career in music. It was there that while performing in a medicine show, where he learned comic timing and some of the famous "patter" he later delivered on his records, the show's owner gave him the nickname "Bob."
In Fort Worth, Wills met Herman Arnspinger and formed The Wills Fiddle Band. In 1930 Milton Brown joined the group as lead vocalist and brought a sense of innovation and experimentation to the band, now called the Light Crust Doughboys due to radio sponsorship by the makers of Light Crust Flour. Brown left the band in 1932 to form the Musical Brownies, the first true Western swing band. Brown added twin fiddles, tenor banjo and slap bass, pointing the music in the direction of swing, which they played on local radio and at dancehalls.
Wills remained with the Doughboys and replaced Brown with new singer Tommy Duncan in 1932. He found himself unnable to get along with future Texas Governor W. Lee "Pappy" O'Daniel, the authoritarian host of the Light Crust Doughboy radio show. O'Daniel had parlayed the show's popularity into growing power within Light Crust Flour's parent company, Burrus Mill and Elevator Company and wound up as General Manager, though he despised what he considered "hillbilly music." Wills and Duncan left the Doughboys in 1933 after Wills had missed one show too many due to his sporadic drinking.
After forming a new band, "The Playboys" and relocating to Waco, Wills found enough popularity there to decide on a bigger market. They left Waco in January of 1934 for Oklahoma City. Wills soon settled the renamed "Texas Playboys" in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and began broadcasting noontime shows over the 50,000 watt KVOO radio station. Their 12:30-1:15 Monday-Friday broadcasts became a veritable institution in the region. Nearly all of the daily (except Sunday) shows originated from the stage of Cain's Ballroom. In addition, they played dances in the evenings, including regular ones at the ballroom on Thursdays and Saturdays. By 1935 Wills had added horn, reed players and drums to the Playboys. The addition of steel guitar whiz Leon McAuliffe in March, 1935 added not only a formidable instrumentalist but a second engaging vocalist. Wills himself largely sang blues and sentimental ballads.

Please Don't Leave Me
Bob Wills Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

Please don't leave me anymore, darling
Partings are so sad my dear
For you're the only one that I love, darling
Can't you tell that I'm sincere?

We were happy once, my dear
Happy as could be
And now that we have things patched up

Just stay here with me

And love me as you have before, darling
For I'm so in love with you

Please don't leave me anymore, darling
Partings are so sad, my dear
For you're the only one that I love, darling
Can't you tell that I'm sincere?

We were happy once, my dear
Happy as could be
Now that we have things patched up
Just stay here with me

And love me as you have before, darling
For I'm so in love with you

Overall Meaning

The lyrics of "Please Don't Leave Me" by Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys express the singer's plea for his lover not to leave him. The opening line, "Please don't leave me anymore, darling," establishes the urgency and desperation in the situation. The singer acknowledges the sadness that comes with partings and tells his lover that she is the only one he loves and that he is sincere in his plea.

The second stanza speaks of happier times when they were "happy as could be." Despite the struggles they faced, they were able to patch things up, and now the singer wants his lover to stay with him and love him as she always has before. The final line, "For I'm so in love with you," emphasizes the depth of his love and his need for her.

Line by Line Meaning

Please don't leave me anymore, darling
Don't go away anymore, my love

Partings are so sad my dear
Saying goodbye is a sorrowful experience, my love

For you're the only one that I love, darling
My affection is only towards you, my love

Can't you tell that I'm sincere?
Can you not see that I am being genuine?

We were happy once, my dear
We used to be happy, my love

Happy as could be
Extremely joyful

And now that we have things patched up
Now that we have fixed our problems

Just stay here with me
Stay by my side

And love me as you have before, darling
Love me the same way you did before, my love

For I'm so in love with you
I am deeply in love with you

Please don't leave me anymore, darling
Don't go away anymore, my love