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Hank Williams was a popular regional singer before he recorded "Love Sick Blues," but he wasn't a superstar. He'd had a couple of hits and gained recognition on the Louisiana Hayride radio program.
Some parts of the story may be apocryphal, but the broad strokes are without much doubt: Williams had been playing the tune on the Hayride program before live audiences, and it was immensely popular. He wanted to record it, but his producer, Fred Rose, hated the song and kept telling him no. Well, during the last 30 minutes of a scheduled recording session — when Rose was absent — Hank insisted on recording the song. And the rest is history.
Love Sick Blues eventually reached #1 on the Country and Western charts and gave Hank his coveted appearance on the Grand Ole Opry. His appearance that night earned him multiple ovations and put his song on the charts for 42 weeks. Among a multitude of other honors, the tune was selected in 2004 by the Library of Congress to be added to the National Recording Registry.
There are a number of live TV recordings of Hank singing other songs, but, alas, none of Love Sick Blues. Sob.
Discussion (4)
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Bonus video.
Although he is a singer Hank Williams III did not follow in the same genre as his grandfather. But he sure as heck looks and sounds like him. In 1996 Hank III showed up at the Opry to pay his respects and sing a couple of the old songs. He wore one of Hank Sr.'s jackets. In the clip, at about minute 3 he sings Love Sick Blues and looks like a reincarnation of the original. Even down to knocking his skinny knees together while he sings.
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Love it madly.
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A local northern/western Virginia musician, Robbie Limon, does a show as Hank Williams he calls "Lovesick Blues." Appearing with him is Tracey Wygal who performs as Patsy Cline. We saw the show a few weeks ago, and though we're not huge country music fans, we enjoyed it immensely.
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I can't describe how much I love this. Freaking awesome.