“South of the Border” is a popular song describing a trip to Mexico, written by Jimmy Kennedy and Michael Carr and published in 1939 for the film of the same namestarring country star Gene Autry.
In the lyrics, a man looks back with regret and pain for having lied to the woman he can’t forget (“…and now as I wander, my thoughts ever stray…”) and returned far too late, to discover she had become a nun. The lyric is in juxtaposition with the music, which swings with syncopated joy.
The song was a hit in 1939 for Shep Fields, vocal by Hal Derwin. Other successful recordings in 1939 were by Guy Lombardo, Gene Autry, Ambrose (vocal by Denny Dennis) and Tony Martin.
Frank Sinatra recorded the song on April 30, 1953 for Capitol Records and it reached the Billboard charts with a top position of #18 in a 4-week stay.
Members of the Western Writers of America chose it as one of the Top 100 Western songs of all time.
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