Over the course of little greater than 4 years — seven whereas he was nonetheless alive, 4 after his unhappy demise — Hank Williams had no fewer than 11 No.1s on Billboard’s nation chart. Between them, they racked up a unprecedented complete of 82 weeks on the summit, an combination of greater than 18 months that helped to forge the legend of one of many true nation greats.
Round midway via that sequence, it was on August 11, 1951 that Williams’ newest MGM single took over on the high from Eddy Arnold’s “I Wanna Play House With You.” The track in query, “Hey, Good Lookin’” had a non-consecutive reign of eight weeks and went on to encourage a couple of hundred cowl variations. Considered one of them was quickly bagging the pop chart honors for itself.
Hank’s authentic “Hey, Good Lookin’” took solely 5 weeks to rise to the nation high spot, however as standard, radio and TV format restrictions (and Billboard’s chart methodology) made it nearly unattainable for him to cross over to a considerable pop viewers. He managed only one week on the pop itemizing together with his new nation hit, at No.29, by which period one of many largest mainstream entertainers of the day, Frankie Laine, had secured the massive cowl, duetting on “Hey, Good Lookin’” with Jo Stafford and climbing to No.9.
Como goes nation
However, Williams was making inroads right into a extra crossover fashionable viewers. In mid-November 1951, for instance, he flew to New York to seem on star crooner Perry Como’s community TV present, in its first reserving of a rustic act. By then, Hank was already on the nation charts once more together with his subsequent MGM single, “Crazy Heart”/“Lonesome Whistle,” each side of which have been Prime 10 hits.
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Fellow artists have been impressed at Williams’ potential to create such lasting work wherever he could also be. Little Jimmy Dickens, who toured the US with Hank and Minnie Pearl in 1951, mentioned that Williams wrote each “Hey, Good Lookin’” and “Howlin’ At The Moon” whereas they have been on a flight to Wichita Falls, Texas. Dickens quoted the star as saying: “If a song can’t be written in 20 minutes, it ain’t worth writing.”
Many cookin’ covers
“Hey, Good Lookin’” turned considered one of Williams’ most-visited copyrights, additionally lined in 1951 in nation fashion by Tennessee Ernie Ford and Helen O’Connell, and in a sort of hillbilly, formative rock’n’roll temper by Piano Crimson. Johnny Money, Carl Perkins, and Gene Vincent all tackled it in 1958. Different notable readings have included these by George Jones (1959), Ray Charles (1962), Del Shannon (1964), Roy Orbison (1970), and Waylon Jennings (1985). A 1973 dwell model by Van Morrison was on the expanded 2016 reissue of his It’s Too Late To Cease Now set.
Williams’ authentic was inducted into the Grammy Corridor of Fame in 2001. In latest occasions, Tom Hiddleston sang the track as Hank Williams on the soundtrack of the biopic I Noticed The Mild, credited with the Saddle Spring Boys. “Hey, Good Lookin’” continues to be lookin’ good some 70 years on.
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