(Last Night) I Heard You Crying in Your Sleep

Last updated
"(Last Night) I Heard You Crying in Your Sleep"
Single by Hank Williams
A-side "Move It on Over"
PublishedJuly 16, 1947 Acuff-Rose Publications [1]
ReleasedJune 1947
RecordedApril 21, 1947
Studio Castle Studio, Nashville
Genre Country
Length2:42
Label MGM
Songwriter(s) Hank Williams
Producer(s) Fred Rose
Hank Williams singles chronology
"Pan American"
(1947)
"(Last Night) I Heard You Crying in Your Sleep"
(1947)
"On the Banks of the Old Ponchartrain"
(1947)

"(Last Night) I Heard You Crying in Your Sleep" is a song written and recorded by Hank Williams on MGM Records. It was released as the B-side of "Move It on Over" in 1947.

Contents

Background

Hank Williams recorded "(Last Night) I Heard You Crying in Your Sleep" at his first MGM recording session after releasing a few sides with Sterling Records. Despite its bouncy tempo, the song contains somber lyrics about a heartbroken man who has come to realize that the woman he loves has never loved him. Making the song even sadder is the forgiving tone of the narrator ("I know you tried your best to love me," "I love you so much I want you happy"), and its simple language is as good an illustration as any of the profound simplicity of Williams' love songs. An embryonic version of the song exists as a lyric sheet in the Alabama Department of Archives and History with words quite dissimilar to the finished recording, suggesting that songwriting wasn't quite the spontaneous act that Williams later made it out to be in interviews; in 1952 he declared to Pathfinder, "People don't write music. It's given to you; you sit there and wait and it comes to you. If a song takes longer than thirty minutes or an hour, I usually throw it away. [2]

Williams recorded the song on April 21, 1947 at Castle Studio in Nashville with Fred Rose producing the session. Williams recorded the song during his first session with MGM on April 21, 1947. The band was composed by part of Red Foley's backing, including Zeke and Zeb Turner (guitar), Brownie Raynolds (bass), Tommy Jackson (fiddle) and Smokey Lohman (steel guitar). [3]

Cover versions

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hank Williams</span> American singer-songwriter (1923–1953)

Hiram "Hank" Williams was an American singer-songwriter. He is regarded as one of the most significant and influential American singers and songwriters of the 20th century. Williams recorded 55 singles that reached the top 10 of the Billboard Country & Western Best Sellers chart, five of which were released posthumously, including 12 that reached No. 1, three after his death.

"Cold, Cold Heart" is a country music and pop song written and first recorded by Hank Williams. This blues ballad is both a classic of honky-tonk and an entry in the Great American Songbook.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hey, Good Lookin' (song)</span> 1951 song written and recorded by Hank Williams

"Hey, Good Lookin'" is a 1951 song written and recorded by Hank Williams, and his version was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2001. In 2003, CMT voted the Hank Williams version No. 19 on CMT's 100 Greatest Songs of Country Music. Since its original 1951 recording it has been covered by a variety of artists.

"Move It On Over" is a song written and recorded by the American country music singer-songwriter Hank Williams in 1947.

"I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" is a song written and recorded by American country music singer-songwriter Hank Williams in 1949. The song has been covered by a wide range of musicians.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">I Saw the Light (Hank Williams song)</span> 1948 single by Hank Williams With His Drifting Cowboys

"I Saw the Light" is a country gospel song written by Hank Williams. Williams was inspired to write the song while returning from a concert by a remark his mother made while they were arriving in Montgomery, Alabama. He recorded the song during his first session for MGM Records, and released in September 1948. Williams' version did not enjoy major success during its initial release, but eventually it became one of his most popular songs and the closing number for his live shows. It was soon covered by other acts, and has become a country gospel standard.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kaw-Liga</span> 1952 song by Hank Williams and Fred Rose

"Kaw-Liga" is a country music song written by Hank Williams and Fred Rose.

"Honky Tonk Blues" was a hit country and western song written and performed by Hank Williams. The original 1952 recording was a major hit, and it later became a hit for Charley Pride.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hank Williams discography</span>

Hank Williams' discography is composed of 31 singles and 2 ten-inch LPs released during his six-year career; as well as posthumous work including: singles, compilation albums and previously unreleased material. During his lifetime, Williams placed 30 songs on Billboard's Top C&W Records, while he had eleven number one hits.

"Take These Chains from My Heart" is a song by Hank Williams. It was written by Fred Rose and Hy Heath and was recorded at Williams' final recording session on September 23, 1952, in Nashville. The song has been widely praised; Williams' biographer Colin Escott deems it "perhaps the best song [Rose] ever presented to Hank...It was one of the very few songs that sounded somewhat similar to a Hank Williams song." Williams is backed by Tommy Jackson (fiddle), Don Helms, Chet Atkins, Jack Shook, and Floyd "Lightnin'" Chance (bass). In the wake of Williams' death on New Year's Day, 1953, the song shot to No. 1, his final chart-topping hit for MGM Records. Like "Your Cheatin' Heart," the song's theme of despair, so vividly articulated by Williams' typically impassioned singing, reinforced the image of Hank as a tortured, mythic figure.

"You Win Again" is a 1952 song by Hank Williams. In style, the song is a blues ballad and deals with the singer's despair with his partner. The song has been widely covered, including versions by Ray Charles, Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison, the Grateful Dead, Charley Pride, Bob Dylan, and the Rolling Stones.

"Honky Tonkin'" is a 1947 country music song, written and recorded by Hank Williams. His song went to #14 on the Billboard country music chart in 1948. In 1982, it became the sixth chart topping single for Williams' son, Hank Williams Jr.

"A Mansion on the Hill" is a song written by Hank Williams and Fred Rose and originally recorded by Williams on MGM Records. It peaked at No. 12 on the Most Played Jukebox Folk Records chart in March 1949.

There'll Be No Teardrops Tonight is a song written by Hank Williams and released on MGM Records as the B-side to "Mind Your Own Business" in July 1949.

Six More Miles (To the Graveyard) is a song written by Hank Williams for MGM Records. It appeared as the B-side to "I Saw the Light" in 1948.

"A House Without Love" is a song composed by Hank Williams. It was released as the B-side to "Why Don't You Love Me" in 1950 on MGM Records.

"I Won't Be Home No More" is a song recorded by Hank Williams on July 11, 1952. It was released posthumously on MGM Records a year later in July 1953. The song climbed to No. 4 on the US Billboard National Best Sellers chart.

"(I Heard That) Lonesome Whistle" is a song written by Hank Williams and Jimmie Davis. It became his fourteenth consecutive Top 10 single in 1951.

<i>Memorial Album</i> (Hank Williams album) 1953 studio album by Hank Williams

Memorial Album is the first Hank Williams LP issued by MGM Records after the singer's death on New Year's Day 1953.

"A Teardrop on a Rose" is a song written by Hank Williams.

References

  1. "U.S. Copyright Office Virtual Card Catalog 1946-1954". vcc.copyright.gov. Retrieved 2021-09-09.
  2. Escott, Merritt & MacEwen 2004, p. 69.
  3. Escott, Merritt & MacEwen 1994, p. 67.

Sources