When Pay Day Rolls Around

Bob Nolan
Original copyright: March 16, 1939

I’m dressing up in style for in a little while
I’m gonna ride into town
And every cowboy pal I know will lift his heel and toe
When pay day rolls around.
And so I’m feelin’ fine because there’s lots of time
Until we’re all homeward bound
To work and slave with cattle, sweat and swear and battle
Until pay day rolls around.

What does a cowboy do when all of his work is thru?
Just what I’m going do now.
With money to spend and jingle, off into town to mingle
With all my friends, I allow.
And maybe a blue-eyed gal will wait for her bronco pal
To ride o’er the hot desert ground.
True heart and golden hair know that I’ll soon be there
When pay day rolls around.

I’m dressing up in style for in a little while
I’m gonna ride ...... (instrumental break)

And so I’m feelin’ fine because there’s lots of time
Until we’re all homeward bound
To work and slave with cattle, sweat and swear and battle
Until pay day rolls around.

When Bob Nolan wrote the lively "When Pay Day Rolls Around" for the Columbia picture, South of Arizona, it became one of his most popular songs and was recorded by a majority of western singers in the 1940s and 1950s. It is still being recorded today. It was also featured in the first Sons of the Pioneers movie with Roy Rogers in 1941, Republic Pictures' Red River Valley.

The song was registered for copyright on March 16, 1939, and was included in Bob Nolan's Folio of Original Cowboy Classics No. 1, American Music, Inc., 1939.

When Pay Day Rolls Around (American Music, Inc.)

SONS OF THE PIONEERS TRANSCRIPTION RECORDINGS

Orthacoustic Symphonies of the Sage, transcription (059250)

Teleways Radio Productions transcriptions, Nos. 42, 98, 165, and 217 (c. 1947-48)

Lucky U Ranch radio shows (courtesy of Larry Hopper)
- Transcriptions disc TR-73/74. (November 6, 1951)
- Transcriptions disc TR-178/179 (January 6, 1952)
- Transcriptions disc TR-250/251 (February 21, 1952)
- Transcriptions disc TR-403/404 (June 9, 1952)
- Transcriptions disc TR-513/514 (October10, 1952)
- Transcriptions disc TR-630/631 (January 1, 1953)
- Transcriptions disc TR-740/741 (March 18, 1953)

Smokey the Bear radio show, No. 2 (1955)