Hank Williams was within the last six months of his life when he went into Fort Studio in Nashville on July 11, 1952. However that session produced a number of memorable entries in his catalog, and particularly a track that produced no less than 100 covers. They’ve included variations by Fat Domino, Rick Nelson, Roy Orbison, Del Shannon, and even the Rolling Stones. It was “You Win Again.”
On the time of the recording, Hank was making what turned out to be his last appearances on the Ryman Auditorium for the venerable Grand Ole Opry present. On July 5, he carried out “Jambalaya (On The Bayou)” and “Half As Much” there, and per week later he reprised “Jambalaya” and added “Honky Tonkin.’”
Aka Luke The Drifter
The Fort session noticed him lay down “I Won’t Be Home No More,” which grew to become one in all a number of posthumous prime ten nation hits for Williams when launched a number of months after his dying on New Yr’s Day, 1953. He additionally taped “Why Don’t You Make Up Your Mind” and “Be Careful Of Stones That You Throw,” launched underneath his “alter ego” of Luke The Drifter.
“You Win Again” was recorded in the future after Hank’s divorce from his spouse Audrey grew to become last, and was suitably mournful in fashion, as so many songs impressed by their turbulent relationship had been. That studio date featured such distinguished gamers as metal guitarist Don Helms and fiddle participant Jerry Rivers. Electrical guitar was by Hank’s fellow Grand Ole Opry performer and RCA Victor recording artist, Chet Atkins.
The track went on to be the flip facet of Hank’s No.2 hit in autumn 1952, “Settin’ The Woods On Fire.” “You Win Again” generated sufficient warmth to register one week on Billboard’s nation listings in its personal proper, at No.10, however after his dying, went on to imagine better prominence in his songbook. It additionally began attracting covers virtually instantly.
Tommy Edwards, of “It’s All In The Game” fame, recorded a canopy the identical 12 months, then Jerry Lee Lewis gave it his personal distinctive remedy in 1957, scoring a High 5 nation hit the next 12 months. Johnny Money and Conway Twitty have been amongst these to sort out it earlier than the 50s have been out; within the first half of the 60s alone, “You Win Again” was recorded by Domino, Shannon, Ray Charles, George Jones, and plenty of others.
Throughout that interval, there was even a Merseybeat-flavoured rendition by Gerry and the Pacemakers. The track was additionally handed down the household line when Hank Williams Jr. sang it for the soundtrack of the 1964 biopic I Bear in mind Hank Williams. Nelson did the track for his 1967 album Nation Fever.
The model on the tribute album Hank Williams The Roy Orbison Manner resurfaced as a part of the Huge O’s MGM Years 1965-1973 field set. “You Win Again” was additionally a part of Glen Campbell’s salute to the nation pioneer, I Bear in mind Hank Williams, in 1973. Charley Satisfaction grew to become the one artist to take the track to the highest of the nation chart, in 1980.
Among the many numerous different Hank devotees, the Stones once more declared their love of conventional nation music – each when Keith Richards lined “You Win Again” on the 2001 multi-artist tribute Timeless, and when the band’s personal model, reduce on the periods for 1978’s Some Women, was formally launched on its 2011 deluxe reissue.
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