Jimmy Dickens Almost Recorded This Hank Williams Track, but Williams Said It Was “Too Good” for Dickens

Hank Williams had no problem letting others record songs he wrote. But he wasn’t going to let just anybody record anything. And if that song promised to be a hit, why shouldn’t he be the one to cut it? At least, that’s the argument Williams offered to Little Jimmy Dickens.

Videos by American Songwriter

Hank Williams Allegedly Wrote This Track for Jimmy Dickens

Some of the best songs come out in one fell swoop, and that seemed to be the case for Hank Williams’ early 1950s track, “Hey, Good Lookin’”. According to country music legend, Williams wrote the song in about twenty minutes while on a plane ride with fellow country stars Jimmy Dickens, Minnie Pearl, and Pearl’s husband, Henry Cannon. The group was heading toward a gig in Wichita Falls, Texas, and mid-trip, Dickens and Williams discussed Dickens’ career.

The musician was looking for a hit to really cement his career, and Williams offered “Hey Good Lookin’” as an option. “I was delighted,” Dickens later recalled, per Hank Williams: The Biography. “I thought it would be a good song for me.”

However, Dickens’ excitement didn’t last long. Not long after that fateful plane ride, Dickens ran into Williams, who had some bad news to share. “He said, ‘Tater, I cut your song today.’” Dickens recalled. (“Tater” was Williams’ nickname for Dickens, whose first hit was “Take An Old Cold Tater (And Wait)”.) Williams followed up, “It’s too good a song for you, anyway.” The song was technically Williams’ to do with what he wished, so Dickens had no choice but to brush it off.

“Hey Good Lookin’” Wasn’t the First Song He Took Back

Although we doubt it helped soothe the initial sting of Hank Williams taking back “Hey Good Lookin’”, Jimmy Dickens wasn’t the only musician who had this experience. According to Williams’ biography, Williams often pitched his songs to other artists, and when they said they liked it, he would suggest they cut a version. The only problem, of course, was that if enough artists said they wanted to record it, the more Williams believed it would be a hit.

And if it was going to be a hit, Williams wanted to record it. Chet Atkins recalled that Williams would “get right up close to you in your face, and he’d sing. If you raved over it, he’d love that. He was pitching songs to the hot acts of that time. They’d say, ‘That’s a great song, Hank. I want to do that on my next session.’ If he got enough people to say that, he’d say, ‘No, it’s too damn good for you. I’m gonna do it myself.’”

In any case, Williams was right about “Hey, Good Lookin’”. The song that fell out in twenty minutes ended up topping the charts, becoming one of the most beloved additions in the early country music canon.

Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images