Cyrus Whitfield "Johnny" Bond (June 1, 1915 – June 12, 1978) was an American

country music Country (also called country and western) is a popular music, music genre originating in the southern regions of the United States, both the American South and American southwest, the Southwest. First produced in the 1920s, country music is p ...

singer-songwriter, guitarist and composer and publisher, who co-founded a music publishing firm. He was active in the music industry from 1940 until the late 1970s.

Early years

Bond was born in Enville, Oklahoma, and grew up on several small farms in Oklahoma. As a youngster, he was influenced musically by records that his parents played. He learned basics of music as a member of his high school's brass band. While in high school he bought a ukulele, but soon he switched to playing the guitar.

Performing

Bond first performed on radio in

Oklahoma City Oklahoma City (), officially the City of Oklahoma City, and often shortened to OKC, is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Oklahoma, most populous city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The county seat ...

when he was 19 years old. In 1937, he began performing with

Jimmy Wakely James Clarence Wakely (February 16, 1914 – September 23, 1982) was an American actor, songwriter, country music vocalist, and one of the last singing cowboys. During the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s, he released records, appeared in several B-Western ...

and Scotty Harrell in the Bell Boys trio, named after the Bell Clothing Company, which sponsored the group on radio station

WKY WKY (930 AM broadcasting, AM) is a commercial radio, commercial radio station in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, owned by Cumulus Media. It is the oldest radio station in Oklahoma and among the oldest in the nation. WKY airs a sports ...

in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. He went on to join ''

Gene Autry's Melody Ranch ''Gene Autry's Melody Ranch'' is a Western variety radio show in the United States. A 15-minute pilot show aired on December 31, 1939. The program ran from January 7, 1940 to August 1, 1943, and from September 23, 1945 to May 16, 1956.French, ...

'' in 1940. He also performed with his own group, the Red River Valley Boys. ''The Encyclopedia of Country Music'' says that the Bond-Wakely-Harrell trio "pulled a clever musical scam" by recording for two companies under different names: the Jimmy Wakely Trio (for

Decca Records Decca Records is a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis (Decca), Edward Lewis after his acquisition of a gramophone manufacturer, The Decca Gramophone Company. It set up an American subsidiary under the Decca name, which bec ...

) and Johnny Bond & the Cimarron Boys (for

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American reco ...

). Bond also acted in more than 40 films, beginning with '' Saga of Death Valley'' (1939) and including '' Wilson'' and '' Duel in the Sun''. Beginning in 1953, Bond and

Tex Ritter Woodward Maurice "Tex" Ritter (January 12, 1905 – January 2, 1974) was a pioneer of American country music, a singer, and an actor from the mid-1930s into the 1960s. He was the patriarch of the Ritter acting family (son John Ritter, grandso ...

were hosts of the syndicated country music television series '' Town Hall Party,'' which lasted seven years.

Recording

Bond's first solo recordings came with

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American reco ...

in 1937. He is best known for his 1947 hit " Divorce Me C.O.D.", one of his seven top ten hits on the ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

'' country

charts A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can represent t ...

. In 1965 at age 50 he scored the biggest hit of his career with the comic "Ten Little Bottles", which spent four weeks at No. 2. Bond's other hits include " So Round, So Firm, So Fully Packed" (1947), "Oklahoma Waltz" (1948), "Love Song in 32 Bars" (1950), "Sick Sober and Sorry" (1951), and a cover of Charlie Ryan's " Hot Rod Lincoln" (1960).

Composing and publishing

The hundreds of songs that Bond wrote include "Cimarron" and "Ten Little Bottles". He and Ritter formed Vidor Publications, a music publishing firm. He retired from performing in the 1970s to devote more time to publishing music.

Death

Bond died of a stroke in 1978, at the age of 63.

Recognition

Bond was elected to the

Country Music Hall of Fame The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville, Tennessee, is one of the world's largest museums and research centers dedicated to the preservation and interpretation of American vernacular music. Chartered in 1964, the museum has amass ...

in 1999, and to the

Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame The Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame was established in 1970 by the Nashville Songwriters Foundation, Inc. in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. A non-profit organization, its objective is to honor and preserve the songwriting legacy that i ...

In popular culture

Bond's song "Stars of the Midnight Ranger" was featured in the role-playing video game, '' Fallout: New Vegas''. Another song of his; "Headin' Down the Wrong Highway" was on the radio in the game Fallout 76.

Discography

Albums

Singles

References

External links

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

*
Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture – Bond, JohnnyJohnny Bond at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bond, Johnny 1915 births 1978 deaths People from Love County, Oklahoma American country singer-songwriters Country Music Hall of Fame inductees Country musicians from Oklahoma Starday Records artists Smash Records artists 20th-century American singer-songwriters Singer-songwriters from Oklahoma