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.

Sooner or Later
Bob Wills Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

Sooner or later, love is gonna get ya
Sooner or later, girl you got to give in
Sooner or later, love is gonna let 'cha
Sooner or later, love is gonna win
Its just a matter of time

Before you make up your mind
To give all that love that you've been hiding

Its just a question of when
I've told you time and again
I'll get all the love you've been denying

Sooner or later, love is gonna get ya
Sooner or later, girl you got to give in
Sooner or later, love is gonna let 'cha
Sooner or later, love is gonna win

You say you'll never be mine
But darling they'll come a time
I'll taste all that love that you've been hiding
Its just a question of time
Before you make up your mind
And give all that love you've been denying

You've been looking for love
In all the wrong places
You've been looking for love
All the wrong faces
Gotta get 'cha girl
Off this illusion
Gonna save your heart
From all this confusion

Sooner or later, love is gonna get ya
Sooner or later, girl you got to give in
Sooner or later, love is gonna let 'cha
Sooner or later, love is gonna win
Love is gonna win

Its just a matter of time
Before you make up your mind
And give all the love that you've been hiding
Its just a question of when
Told you time and again
I'll get all the love you've been denying

Sooner or later, love is gonna get ya
Sooner or later, girl you got to give in

Sooner or later, love is gonna let 'cha
Sooner or later, love is gonna win

Overall Meaning

"Sooner Or Later" is a song about a man trying to convince a woman to give in to love. The lyrics suggest that love will eventually catch up with her, and it is just a question of when she will "make up [her] mind" and give in. The singer tells the woman that he will continue to pursue her until she gives him the love that she has been hiding or denying. He suggests that she has been looking for love in all the wrong places and with the wrong people, but that he will save her heart from all this confusion.

The song is an expression of the belief that love is inevitable and will eventually conquer all. The lyrics convey a sense of persistence and determination on the part of the singer, who is determined to win the woman's heart no matter what it takes. However, the song also recognizes that love is a journey, and that it takes time and patience to find the right person.

Overall, "Sooner Or Later" is a timeless love song that captures the universal struggle to find love and the determination required to pursue it. It offers a message of hope and optimism, suggesting that love will eventually triumph over all obstacles.

Line by Line Meaning

Sooner or later, love is gonna get ya
It's inevitable that you'll fall in love eventually

Sooner or later, girl you got to give in
At some point, you have to let yourself love and be loved

Sooner or later, love is gonna let 'cha
Love will allow you to be vulnerable and open

Sooner or later, love is gonna win
Love will triumph

Its just a matter of time
It's only a question of when it will happen

Before you make up your mind
Before you decide to love or not to love

To give all that love that you've been hiding
To finally allow yourself to love fully

Its just a question of when
The only uncertainty is when it will happen

I've told you time and again
I've said this many times before

I'll get all the love you've been denying
I will finally receive the love that you've been holding back

You say you'll never be mine
You claim that you'll never love me