If everyone at Castle Studio in Nashville had known that the song they were tracking with country superstar Hank Williams would be their last, they might not have been as keen to make it one of their fastest. But Williams’ honky tonk outfit didn’t need more than one take, and of course, they would have had no way of knowing that Williams was about to leave their worlds as quick as he came in.
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From the scrambled writing process to the actual recording, Williams’ classic track, “Your Cheatin’ Heart,” seems to be a chronological testament to how lightning-fast his career really was.
Hank Williams Wrote This Classic Track In Minutes
Some of the best songs pour out of a writer in one big tidal wave, and that was certainly true of Hank Williams’ 1953 single, “Your Cheatin’ Heart.” Williams wrote the song about his ex-wife, Audrey Sheppard, with whom he had a tumultuous relationship marred by substance abuse and infidelity. He and Sheppard divorced in May 1952, and shortly after, the country star had plans to marry singer Billie Jean Jones. Williams and Jones were driving from Nashville, Tennessee, to Jones’ hometown of Shreveport, Louisiana, to tell Jones’ parents their plans to wed.
The couple was talking about previous relationships when Williams described his ex-wife as having “a cheatin’ heart.” Jones later said, “Then, he said, ‘Hey, that’d make a good song! Get out my tablet, baby. You and I are gonna write us a song. Just about as fast as I could write it, Hank quoted the words to me in a matter of minutes.”
By the time Williams and Jones made it a few miles down the road, the country star had yet another “heart” song in his catalogue. His signature style of forlorn, heartache-y country music made the word a common feature of his music. But as Williams once told a friend, “Your Cheatin’ Heart” was “the best heart song I ever wrote.” And Williams was right. The song has become synonymous with his musical legacy and, more tragically, his death.
One Of The Last Songs The Superstar Ever Recorded
We’ve seen the Icarian dilemma in countless musicians over the last 100 years: the higher an artist flies, the harder they tend to fall. Such was the case for Hank Williams, country music pioneer, who died before he ever reached his 30th birthday.
Williams died on January 1, 1953, while traveling to Canton, Ohio, for a New Year’s gig. Williams, who was in poor health at the time, was being chauffeured by Charles Carr, a then-teenage college freshman. Carr pulled off at a service station to grab a bite to eat and some coffee. When he asked Williams if he wanted anything, the musician refused, saying he just wanted to sleep. Carr returned to the car and tried to adjust the blanket over Williams when he realized his body was stiff. Williams had died of heart failure, according to official reports.
Three months before the world lost one of the leading figures of country music, Williams was in the studio at Castle Studio in Nashville recording what would become his final songs. “Your Cheatin’ Heart” was on the session list in September 1952.
As Williams’ steel guitar player, Don Helms, recalled to the Musicians Hall of Fame & Museum, “We played it all the way through. Nobody made a mistake bad enough to have to do it again. We played it only once. So, what you hear on that record had no rehearsal. We just played it one time through, and the proof is on the record.” Sadly, Helms said, “I never saw him alive again.”
The song was released posthumously, days after Williams died.
Photo by Underwood Archives/Shutterstock
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