San Antonio Rose – Fiddle Tune a Day – Day 90

 The song is written in the first person with the Rose of San Antone being the gentleman’s lost love.

“San Antonio Rose“/”New San Antonio Rose” was the signature song of Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys. “San Antonio Rose” was an instrumental song written by Bob Wills, who first recorded it with the Playboys in 1938. Band members added lyrics and it was retitled “New San Antonio Rose”.^[2] The song opens with the refrain:

Deep within my heart, lies a melody,

A song of old San Antone.

“New San Antonio Rose” was the first national hit by Bob Wills and His Playboys, propelling them from their Southwestern fame to national notice.^[3][4]

The song, both the music and lyrics, reflects the Mexican influence Bob Wills found growing up in the Southwest.^[5] Wills developed the melody of the original “San Antonio Rose” itself from a traditional tune, “Spanish Two Step”, by the playing the bridge in reverse.^[6]

“New San Antonio Rose” ruffled the feathers of Southern country music moguls when Wills and the Playboys performed it with horns and a drum at the Grand Ole Opry on December 30, 1944.^[7][8]

The song has been recorded by many artists in several genres. The pseudonym Jericho wrote the Swedish lyrics. A Swedish version was recorded by Ingalill Rossvald and Harry Brandelius withThorsten Sjögren’s orch. in Stockholm on February 7, 1952. It was released on the 78 rpm record His Master’s Voice X 7795.

It lends its name to San Antonio Rose Palace in San Antonio, Texas

San Antonio Rose Lyrics

Deep within my heart lies a melody

A song of old San Antone

Where in dreams I lived with a memory

Beneath the stars all alone

It was there I found beside the Alamo

Enchantment strange as the blue up above

A moonlit pass that only she would know

Still hears my broken song of love

 

Moon and all your splendor knows only my heart

Call back my Rose Rose of San Antone

 

Lips so sweet and tender like petals fallin’ apart

Speak once again of my love my own

 

Oh broken song empty words I know

Still live in my heart all alone

For that moonlit pass beside the Alamo

And calls my Rose of San Antone

[ fiddle – steel ]

Moon and all your splendor…