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45 Years Ago Today, Hank Williams Jr. Landed His Third No. 1 Single With This Tribute to the “Beauty Queens in El Paso”
As country music’s newest superstar, Ella Langley has been making waves with her No. 1 hit “Choosin’ Texas”, the lament of a woman losing her lover to a woman from the Lone Star State. The land of faith, food, and football has long provided country-song fodder, with some prime examples including George Strait’s “Amarillo By Morning” and “El Paso” by Marty Robbins. Although born in neighboring Louisiana, Hank Williams Jr. similarly couldn’t avoid falling under the spell of “Texas Women”. He even wrote an entire song about it, which topped the country singles chart on this day (April 3) in 1981.
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Bocephus comes out swinging right out of the gate in “Texas Women”, the lead single off his 1981 album Rowdy. I’m a country plowboy, not an urban cowboy, he sneers, taking aim at the popular John Travolta film released less than a year earlier.
Hank Williams Jr. then goes on to wax poetic about the beauty of “Houston faces” and “the beauty queens in El Paso.”
I’m an Oiler fan, not a soccer man / And my arms are red and so is my blood, he declares in the song’s final verse. And they make it boil with that soft Texas drawl / And I love ’em all, Texas women.
This Marked Hank Williams Jr.’s First Chart-Topper in a Decade
“Texas Women” spent a week atop the country singles chart, a position that Hank Williams Jr. hadn’t seen since 1972’s “Eleven Roses.”
He would reach the same milestone with Rowdy’s follow-up single, “Dixie On My Mind”. Following a familiar template, the song’s narrator has decided to give city living a shot, only to end up “stuck up here” with “Dixie on my mind.”
[RELATED: Hank Williams Jr. Announces 2026 U.S. Tour Dates]
The 1980s were a time of immense musical growth for Williams Jr., who had previously made his name largely on emulating his late father. Between 1979 and 1990, he would send 30 singles to the Top 10 of the Billboard country charts, including eight No. 1 hits.
In 1982, the year after he released “Texas Women,” Williams Jr. had nine albums simultaneously on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart, all of which were original works.
Featured image by Ron Wolfson/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
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