Coyote’s Serenade

Bob Nolan
Original copyright: September 27, 1955

Lone coyote whining, his heart is pining
When he goes “oo-ooo-ooo, etc.”

Night shadows glow, moon’s hanging low,
The stage and the setting are made.
One silhouette, a sigh of regret,
That’s part of a heart and the start of a strange serenade.

Lone coyote whining, his heart is pining
When he goes “oo-ooo-ooo, etc.”
Wild eyes that glisten, keen ears that listen.
He hears an “oo-ooo-ooo, etc.”

Come from his dearie, mournful and dreary.*

She’s only saying she loves him by stars above him
When she goes “oo-ooo-ooo, etc.”

*This line does not appear on the sheet music in the publisher’s
archives but it is on the original card and is performed in "Romance
on the Range" and on the Teleways Radio Productions transcription of the song.

The inspiration for this song, Bob Nolan told Ken Griffis, came from listening to the coyotes communicating in varying tones with each other from mountain top to mountain top. He also said, introducing the song in the Teleways Radio Productions transcription No. 69, "The lonesome wail of a coyote can keep you awake or put you to sleep - it's all according to how much a part of the West you really are. Maybe because I've slept in talking distance of them so much, but to me the cry of a coyote sounds like music."

The song was never commercially recorded. The Sons of the Pioneers did record it for the 10-2-4 Ranch radio show. The song was composed by Bob Nolan for the 1939 Columbia film Stranger from Texas but was also performed in 1942 in the Republic picture Romance on the Range with Roy Rogers.

Coyote’s Serenade

LIST OF TRANSCRIPTION RECORDINGS

Orthacoustic Radio transcriptions (064352)
10-2-4 Ranch radio show No. 165-05 (February 2, 1943)
Teleways Radio Productions transcriptions No. 19, 69, 130, 154, 193, and 255