Best Hank Williams #1 Hit

"Hey, Good Lookin'" ALWAYS makes me smile, so that.
My fav is "Mansion on the Hill," however.

Lovesick blues. Most of my favourite Hank songs aren't on this list.

Jambalaya.

long gone lonesome blues, i crank this tune and sing my heart out w/ hank

cold, cold heart a close second

i love all these songs tho. been listening to a lot of hank recently

#2's: Wedding Bells, My Bucket's Got A Hole In It, Honky Tonk Blues, Half As Much, Settin' The Woods On Fire, I Can't Help It If I'm Still In Love With You.

Other top 5's: Move It On Over, Mind Your Own Business, You're Gonna Change (Or I'm Gonna Leave), Howlin' At The Moon, Baby We're Really In Love, Crazy Heart, I Won't Be Home No More

Surprised they didn't chart high/weren't singles: I Saw The Light, I Heard That Lonesome Whistle Blow (peaked at #9), Honky Tonkin' (#14), Ramblin' Man, Lost Highway, I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry.

^ ramblin' man is nuts, so creepy and dark, i love it

does this HW have a bad song? got to admit i never really dug kaw-liga but it's pretty fun i guess, but really i don't think there are any really bad songs

Your Cheatin' Heart/Kaw-Liga was a single, but both sides are listed as #1 - how does that work?

Back then a single and its flip side charted separately. "Don't Be Cruel/Hound Dog" is another single I can think of where both sides went #1. Voted Lovesick Blues.

"Hey Good Lookin" but

Most of my favourite Hank songs aren't on this list.

― Suggesteban Cambiasso (jim), Thursday, April 23, 2009 2:15 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

^^^^^ that

Long Gone Lonesome Blues

I'm gonna find me a river, one that's cold as ice
And when I find me that river, Lord I'm gonna pay the price, oh lord
I'm going down in it three times, but Lord I'm only coming up twice

I'm going with the only one I ever heard my grandmother sing (though not for that reason), "Hey, Good Lookin'".

chains

Pretty sure I like the "other Top 5s" list best.

Here, I'll go with "Jamabalya."

Does he hold the record for most posthumous #1 singles?

No one picking "Why Don't You Love Me" so I vote for that.

I voted for "Why Don't You Love Me" too. Love that bitterness!

"Long Gone Lonesome" is amazing though. All of these songs are perfection but anyone other than Hank singing would ruin most of them.

I voted a few busy days ago and so don't remember what I voted for, but probably "I'll Never Get Out Of This World Alive", great pun, great spooked vocal.

From that list, "Cold Cold Heart"

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

if this has been discussed elsewhere on the board, please forgive me and kindly direct me to the right place:

my introduction to hank williams was via the iconic "24 of hank williams' greatest hits" record, which i bought secondhand in high school and played in my car for probably an entire summer. it sparked in me a deep love for the man's music and songwriting

https://img.discogs.com/SJdtWsuY74Yyrtkr8FGq_Lw8WTw=/fit-in/500x500/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-2629050-1294173606.jpeg.jpg

later on i acquired this 2xLP from 1978, "40 greatest hits"

https://img.discogs.com/SJdtWsuY74Yyrtkr8FGq_Lw8WTw=/fit-in/500x500/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-2629050-1294173606.jpeg.jpg

and up until very recently i thought that those tunes, along with some luke the drifter stuff i had downloaded from a blog, was all i would ever need. but then i heard a tune i hadn't come across before, "tear in my beer"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5ksJz0BMlM

i'm not sure why it never occurred to me to seek out demos, rarities, early stuff. basically i've never taken a deep dive into HW's discography, and i'm looking to correct that now. to the best of my knowledge, hank has never been given the bear family treatment. closest thing seems to be a 10xCD releeased in '98, but even though it's billed as "complete" it's clearly not.

https://www.discogs.com/Hank-Williams-The-Complete-Hank-Williams/release/1236486

what are the "essential" bootlegs ? what's worth seeking out beyond the official MGM stuff ? are the demo recordings all as good as "tear in my beer" ? any opinions are welcome and appreciated.

whoops that second pic should be

https://img.discogs.com/O-IiAjTMTl8dDJUj4lIz3HSi8Xk=/fit-in/500x500/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-2586681-1559945048-1966.jpeg.jpg

p.s. my vote would've been "lovesick blues" even if it's heavily indebted to a version that i think is probably better:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3hStzw4oH8
Rex Griffin - Lovesick Blues

There were these good double albums of radio transcriptions or something years ago, but couldn’t tell you at this point which ones to get.

I’m not talking about those Best of Mother’s more recently released transcriptions.

Something like this: I Won’t Be Home No More, June 1952-September 1952, Volume VIII. What that was Volume VIII of I can’t remember, but is was some kind of completist everything they could find at the time.

Time-Life have done some fairly comprehensive comps of the radio shows.

I guess it may qualify as one of those 'Lost/Forgotten Hits', but "Tear In My Beer" became a hit in the late '80s as an overdubbed posthumous duet w/Hank Jr. for the Pink Cadillac soundtrack.

Christgau favorably reviews Volume II, Lovesick Blues: August 1947-December 1948, which came out on Polydor in 1985.

Which is on Spotify, although none of the others seems to be.

Health & Happiness was the most recently unearthed Radio transcriptions, I think.

Maybe not the most recent, although the Complete Health & Happiness might be a recent update. There’s also the Garden Spot recordings.

Man, there is just too much of this stuff to keep track of. Think I will let you guys handle it, I'm about worn out from my labors on that other thread.

I know "Lovesick Blues" made him a star, but Hank didn't write it so that's why I don't think it deserves the top spot. Not even sure if his version is the best.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otNICva63mQ

you might have posted the upload which is just the picture of the 78 but anyway no, he didn't write it. if you scroll up you'll see i posted the rex griffin version yesterday, which i think i beats both hank and emmett.

xp James, you can see all eight volumes of the series you mentioned here:

https://www.discogs.com/label/1391718-The-Definitive-Hank-Williams-Series

looks like they were all released between '85 and '87 and were put together by colin escott, who was also co-produced and wrote extensive liner notes for the 10xCD box i mentioned in the revive:

https://img.discogs.com/hWNnA0xDRyistCV5Yrjrbl6Rsds=/fit-in/600x1168/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-1236486-1529529029-2754.jpeg.jpg

which in all fairness is probably as good a place as any to start, even if the price of admission is pretty steep for secondhand copies these days.

re: last year's reissue of the "health & happiness" recordings, i found one review, quoting the liner notes (again written by colin escott), noting that

“the audio quality of his transcriptions equaled, if not surpassed, his commercial recordings.”

another review was less enthusiastic:

All that said, The Complete Health & Happiness Recordings, recorded in October 1949 at WSM in Nashville, is a mixed blessing. Williams’ performances—including his early hits “Lovesick Blues” and “Mind Your Own Business”—are sandwiched into formulaic, 15-minute- long country music variety shows.

Announcer Grant Turner introduces the star every week as the “ol’ ‘Lovesick Blues’ boy.” The opening selection is always “Happy Rovin’ Cowboy.” The first four programs include Williams’ first wife, Audrey, singing solos and duets with her husband. Audrey Williams fancied herself a singer. She sang in dry, grating tones and was prone to being off pitch. Fortunately, Mrs. Williams dropped out of the final four Health & Happiness shows, a blessing that gave ol’ Hank an additional song.

still seems worth checking out !

Good work! I’ll buy you lunch at the Shreveport airport the next time both of us are down there.

lol sounds lovely

The Colin Escott bio is pretty good too, in case you don't have it.

i do not but will look into it ! looks like he co-wrote and co-produced the "american masters" DVD i have about HW, will need to find a way to watch it ASAP.

I'm a bit weirded out that the centennial of Hank Williams birth went by this weekend without much media fanfare, and I only saw it acknowledged on the social media of a few twangy artists and friends. Has he fallen that far off the radar? He's foundational, sure, but he's also hilarious, he's fun and he's gut wrenching. It doesn't take too much effort to acclimatize one's ears to the context. Or does it? Does a guy like him need to have a fascist-killing guitar or press shot of flipping the bird to maintain a legacy these days?

Anyone see the biopic?

I actually saw quite a bit of coverage in country media. There also seemed to be a lot of local coverage.

Wish I could attend this: https://www.countrymusichalloffame.org/calendar/hanks-100th-a-concert-in-celebration-of-hank-williams

BMG is also doing a couple things:

In celebration of what would have been Hank Williams‘ 100th birthday on Friday (September 15), BMG will release Hank 100: Greatest Radio Hits 1923–2023, out September 17, along with a blue vinyl reissue of The Garden Spot Programs, 1950, which received a Grammy for Best Historical Album in 2015, and will be released on September 29.

https://americansongwriter.com/new-hank-williams-album-hall-of-fame-celebrate-100th-birthday-of-late-country-legend/

They also had a ceremony at his grave. Chuckled at this video of Holly Williams and her kiddos:

https://x.com/KyleCoroneos/status/1703447278344712227?s=20

But whutabout the lamestream media? He's he a not a crossover influence now? Too far back?

I didn't hear anything either. Foundational, for sure.

I didn't either, though I guess in fairness I've noticed that a lot of centennials in the past few years have gotten pretty muted responses compared to what I remember from the past. I'm tempted to say it's because the music business is so much smaller now. I remember when Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong's centennials were a huge deal, but they were also driven by major box sets that were heavily marketed and not surprisingly universally covered (back when newspapers were thriving and almost all of them still had music critics on staff). For someone who wasn't that familiar with their music, it was actually hard to miss. Which reminds me, Hank DID have a comparable moment when The Complete Hank Williams (well, sort of "complete") was released, because that got a ton of press. Arts coverage in mainstream news has diminished over the past 20 years and virtually disappeared in some places as well, and with no big product to sell/market, I think it's also become easier for these centennials to get limited notice. Charlie Parker's centennial was only a few years ago, and naturally the jazz festival here in NYC celebrated, but I barely saw anything outside of that.

(To be fair, yes, there's Hank 100: Greatest Radio Hits 1923–2023, but I didn't hear about that until now. It's not out yet, so it could still get decent press outside of country music media.)

I do remember some playlists and talk of the Parker centennial in the New York times, but it was indeed muted compared to the turn-of-the-century coverage for Ellington and Armstrong, so the diminished arts coverage and music business may have a lot to do with it. I don't remember anything for Muddy Waters in 2013, who'd seem to be of roughly similar rootsy stature to Hank. Still, I'd have expected he'd have gotten some social media plugs in NPR, Oxford American and other general interest spots that cover "Americana" and contemporary artists who'd be happy to rep for him.