Laurence Zwisohn, October 2002

The publishing history of Tumbling Tumbleweeds illustrates how many songwriters have been taken advantage of by music publishers due to their lack of business expertise.

The song Tumbling Tumbleweeds began as a poem titled Tumbling Leaves which Bob Nolan wrote on an autumn day in 1932. Around that same time Bob Nolan joined a local Los Angeles area country music group called The Rocky Mountaineers where he sang duets with Roy Rogers (then known by his original name of Len Slye).

Late in 1933 the Pioneer Trio (which became the Sons of the Pioneers) was formed by Roy Rogers, Bob Nolan and Tim Spencer. A short time later they were signed as staff singers on radio station KFWB in Hollywood. By this time Bob Nolan had added music to Tumbling Leaves and the trio began singing the song on some of their radio appearances. The trio’s performances of Tumbling Leaves went over well with their audiences and they began receiving letters asking them to repeat the song. A number of these requests asked for the song about the “tumbling weeds”. Since the Pioneer Trio’s repertoire was primarily built around western songs Bob Nolan saw the logic of making a few changes to his song and turning it into Tumbling Tumbleweeds. The Pioneer Trio’s growing popularity on KFWB led to their being given a program of their own and, to no one’s surprise, they chose Tumbling Tumbleweeds as their theme song.

Sheet music sales had long been an important source of income for both songwriters and music publishers and one of the biggest outlets for sheet music sales was at the 5 & 10 cent chain stores such as Woolworth’s and Newberry’s. The owner of the sheet music concession at Newberry’s in Los Angeles who also operated Sunset Music, a small music publishing company, recognized the growing popularity of Tumbling Tumbleweeds and in May 1934 he obtained the publishing rights to the song from Bob Nolan.

Within six weeks of the time Tumbling Tumbleweeds was published by Sunset Music the company was contacted by the larger Sam Fox Music which purchased the song’s publishing rights with the knowledge and approval of Bob Nolan. Sam Fox Music quickly republished the song but their sheet music edition dropped Bob Nolan’s original opening verse and replaced it with a verse written by one of their staff writers. Apparently the publisher felt the original verse didn't have a strong enough western feel. This change was made without Bob Nolan’s knowledge or permission.

In 1946 Sam Fox Music encountered financial difficulties which led to their selling the publishing rights to the songs Tumbling Tumbleweeds and I’ll Be Seeing You (written by Sammy Fain and Irving Kahal) to Williamson Music which was owned by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II.

Before the formation of BMI (Broadcast Music Inc.) in 1940 music licensing in the United States was dominated by ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers). ASCAP restricted its membership which resulted in few writers of western songs, jazz, blues, hillbilly and other styles of music being allowed to join the society. Although ASCAP membership was restricted ASCAP affiliated music publishers were never reluctant to obtain the rights to any song that was likely to generate sales and revenue. Although they might publish a song by a non-ASCAP member the songwriters themselves weren’t allowed to participate in all the sources of music income that were available to ASCAP members.

In 1959 Bob Nolan asked his attorney to review his finances and the status of his copyrights. This led to the discovery that for many years he had been receiving only a small portion of the income he was entitled to from Tumbling Tumbleweeds. Unable to reach a settlement with Williamson Music a lawsuit was brought against the publisher. The court case, which was upheld on appeal, ruled against Williamson Music. Bob Nolan was awarded a financial settlement going back seven years (the maximum period allowed by the law) however, his request to have the copyright returned to him was denied and the song remained with Williamson Music.

When Broadcast Music Inc. (BMI) was formed in 1940 they took a broad-minded approach which welcomed all songwriters into their organization. Bob Nolan and Tim Spencer were under contract to American Music and they along with American Music were among the earliest to join BMI. As a result all of Bob Nolan’s songs were affiliated with BMI with the exception of Tumbling Tumbleweeds which remained with Williamson Music, an ASCAP affiliate that didn’t even form a BMI publishing company until sometime in the 1990s.

Although there have been many recent changes in the United States copyright law songwriters or their estates are permitted to exercise their right to get back the American publishing rights to a song at the end of the 56th year of a copyright. Bob Nolan’s widow chose to do this by forming Music of the West, a BMI affiliated publishing company. The first of Bob Nolan’s songs to come up for its 56-year renewal was Tumbling Tumbleweeds. As required by law Williamson Music was notified that Mrs. Nolan planned to exercise her right to renew the copyright. By placing the song with Music of the West, a BMI affiliate, it would finally be possible for Bob Nolan’s estate to begin receiving a greater measure of income from Tumbling Tumbleweeds.

BMI pays higher income to those songs that have received over a million performances. Bob Nolan’s song Cool Water had long since qualified as a million performance song and although Tumbling Tumbleweeds had been in an ASCAP company since 1946 there was no question it also belonged in that category. As soon as the song was transferred to Music of the West BMI qualified Tumbling Tumbleweeds as a million-performance song which further increased its earning ability.

There is no way to estimate the amount of income Bob Nolan lost from Tumbling Tumbleweeds over the decades due to accounting practices and to the many years the song remained in an ASCAP catalog while Bob Nolan was a BMI member.

Lawrence Zwisohn is known worldwide for the superb liner notes he wrote for Bear Family's boxed sets of Sons of the Pioneers recordings. He is quoted widely as an accurate source of information on the group. He knew the original Sons of the Pioneers personally and is a respected researcher and writer. He has made many valuable contributions to this website.