Other country legends, like Johnny Cash, Ray Price, and George Jones, have only added their own slants to the song, without uncovering anything new. Starting with the obvious, Jerry Lee Lewis teamed up with Elvis Presley for a disappointing ham-fest, which is ultimately unrewarding (available on various compilations). Soon, all sorts of recording artists were recording the song. That a young Italian singing waiter from Queens could find common ground with a country singer from Alabama's backwoods is testament both to Williams' skills as a writer and to Bennett's imagination and artist's ear. A young-sounding Tony Bennett croons over light orchestration on his recording, making "Cold, Cold Heart" sound like an old Neapolitan or Sicilian ballad that was translated into colloquial English (available on various compilations). They provide a sturdy, swinging rhythm, Rivers and Helm trading mournful licks to accompany Williams' wails at the ends of the verses ("the more we drift apaaaaaaart").
#Cold cold heart hank williams free
He turns phrases and tricky meters with ease: "Another love before my time made your heart sad and blue/And so my heart is paying now for things I did not do/In anger unkind words are said that make the teardrops start/Why can't I free your doubtful mind and melt your cold, cold heart?" Williams takes a universal sentiment (who has not felt they are paying for someone else's mistakes in a relationship?) and offers his own experience as a stark and clear example of the possible depths of emotional disappointment.īeginning with the sparkling steel guitar work of Don Helm, the rest of Williams' backing band, the Drifting Cowboys, enter: Bob McNett on guitar, bassist Hillous Butrum, fiddler Jerry Rivers. As usual, Williams' voice is remarkably expressive, wavering and cracking in all the right places. The fact that the author chose to include the repetition of the word "cold" in the title is indicative of the level of the song's wrenching emotion Williams knows the power of repeating that word, realizing that a simple "cold heart" does not convey the chill in the woman to whom he sings it is as if he observes her callousness with an utterly helpless disbelief.
That opened the floodgates, and the song has been covered by a wide range of artists, from Boxcar Willie to the Mighty Lemon Drops. Soon after Williams' single went to number one on the country chart in 1951 (one of eight of his singles to go Top Ten in that year), Tony Bennett recorded a pop version that was also a hit on the pop charts, going to number one and selling over a million copies. Like many Hank Williams songs, "Cold, Cold Heart" is a quintessential honky tonk country song that transcends the genre, having entered the Great American Songbook almost immediately after Williams' original recording.
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