I Wonder if She Waits for Me Tonight

Bob Nolan
Original copyright: Unknown

Here within my lonely room
Dreams close in, I’m leaving soon.
I wonder if she waits for me tonight.
Old-time song 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"Bob Nolan approached Lem Giles, of the Beverly Hill Billies, to see if the two groups might exchange a few of their unpublished tunes.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’ [sic], 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)

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 first was a Columbia (ARC) recording made on October 21, 1937. When Sons of the Pioneers were in Chicago in 1940 they made another recording for the NBC Thesaurus of Music radio transcriptions called Symphonies of the Sage.

Observations on the similarities between "A Choir Boy Sings All Alone Tonight" and "I Wonder If She Waits For Me Tonight"

Similarities only occur in the chorus. The verse and bridge (of the chorus) are entirely different. The chorus in both tunes is an 8 bar phrase that is repeated. It has an 8 bar bridge that is not similar in any way, then the first 8 bars is repeated in standard AABA song format.

The harmonic rhythm of the first 8 bars in both tunes are similar—the chords are mostly the same and change in a like fashion.

Melodically, measures 1,2, 5,6,7, & 8 are pretty close to the same in both tunes.

Essentially Nolan was able to transform a very pedestrian tune into something quite dramatic utilizing only 6 bars of the original melody. Since copyright laws need 8 bars of similarity for purposes of litigation, Nolan was home free on this one.
—David Bourne

We do not have any sheet music for this song.

SONS OF THE PIONEERS TRANSCRIPTION RECORDINGS

Orthacoustic Symphonies of the Sage, (064393)