According to Johnny Bond, until he wrote "I Wonder Where You Are Tonight," he had written nothing but cowboy songs!
Bond commented, "I was part of the Jimmy Wakely Trio at the time and we were in California. This was in 1949-and we were trying to get on the Gene Autry "Melody Ranch" radio show. And while we were waiting on employment, we didn't have anything to do except write songs. And I thought I might have better luck writing a hillbilly love song.
We had sang a song on the radio in Oklahoma that had the line "I wonder where you are tonight." So I used that line as the idea and wrote the song from that."
"A lot of new songs have been written using that same melody because most people thought the song was an old Public Domain tune."
"Years later, an old man came up to me and wanted me to listen to what he called "his church song," which he thought was written around an old Public Domain tune. I hated to do it but I had to remind that man that his "church song" was actually my composition. He was quite surprised and embarrassed when I told him-but he seemed to feel better when I told him not to worry because I was not going to sue him."
Although "I Wonder Where You Are Tonight" was never a charted single, it has been recorded by dozens of artists and is included in over a hundred albums.
As a recording artist, Johnny Bond placed 11 songs on the country charts between 1947 and 1971. He was inducted into The Country Music Hall Of Fame in 1999. Johnny Bond died in 1978.
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