Tannen Music was founded in 1944 by Nat Tannen. Nat got his start in the music business working for Irving Berlin Music selling sheet music. There he met another Berlin employee, Sol Bourne, who convinced him to leave Berlin and come work at his new company, Bourne Music. Nat traveled extensively throughout the country promoting Bourne Music to the big bands of the day. It was on one of these trips in Texas that he came across the country legend, Bob Wills, and acquired for Bourne the two great country classics "San Antonio Rose" and "Steel Guitar Rag."