"Detour" is a Western swing ballad written by Paul Westmoreland

Paul Westmoreland

Paul "Okie Paul" Westmoreland was a musician, songwriter, and disc jockey in Sacramento, California.Born in Oklahoma, he moved to California during the Okie migration....

 in 1945

1945 in music

-Events:*The Motion Picture Daily Fame Poll designates Bing Crosby "Top Male Vocalist" for the ninth straight year.*July 26 - Composer Ernest John Moeran marries cellist Peers Coetmore.*August 19 - Dick Powell marries June Allyson....

. The original version was by Jimmy Walker with Paul Westmoreland and His Pecos River Boys, issued around the beginning of November 1945.

The title comes from the repetition of detour in the chorus:

Detour, there's a muddy road ahead.

Detour, paid no mind to what it said.

Detour, all these bitter things I find.

Should have read that detour sign.

Written in the first person, the song tells of the singer's regrets for the choices made in life.

"Headed down life's crooked road
Lots of things I never knowed,
And because of me not knowin', I now pine.
Trouble got in the trail,
Spent the next five years in jail,
Should have read that detour sign."
(chorus)

Spade Cooley (Columbia 36935), with Tex Williams

Tex Williams

Sollie Paul Williams , known professionally as Tex Williams, was an American Western swing musician from Ramsey, Illinois....

 on vocals, had a big hit with it in 1946

1946 in music

- Events :*January 6 – A somewhat revised and streamlined revival of Kern and Hammerstein's Show Boat opens on Broadway at the Ziegfeld Theatre, the same theatre at which the original production played back in 1927. This production features newly designed sets and costumes, new, more extended...

, spending 11 weeks on the charts, reaching #2.