Johnny Bond

Cyrus Whitfield "Johnny" Bond (June 1, 1915 – June 12, 1978) was an American country music 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 when he was 19 years old. In 1937, he began performing with Jimmy Wakely and Scotty Harrell in the Bell Boys trio, named after the Bell Clothing Company, which sponsored the group on radio station WKY in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. He went on to join Gene Autry's Melody Ranch 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) and Johnny Bond & the Cimarron Boys (for Columbia Records).

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 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 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 country charts. 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 in 1999, and to the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame.

In popular culture
Bond's song "Stars of the Midnight Range" 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.