My Top Ten Hank Songs: Your Cheatin' Heart (#3)

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There has never been a phenomenon in country music like Hank Williams. Revered in country music by countless performers (see my list of my favorite songs about Hank), even rockers have gotten in on the act. Today's song was even a hit for an R&B/blues legend. #3: Your Cheatin' Heart In 1962 Ray Charles decided he'd take a bold step and recorded an album titled Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music. One of the hits from that album was Ray's version of "Your Cheatin' Heart." And, if you've ever seen The Blues Brothers (speaking of Ray, who was one of two show-stealers with "Shake a Tail Feather" [the other one was Aretha Franklin's smoking rendition of "Think"]), when the band first enters Bob's Country Bunker the song you hear in the background is...."Your Cheatin' Heart" (by Kitty Wells). Hank never saw the success of this song. It was released in February 1953, a month after Hank's death. The song stayed at #1 for six weeks. One of Hank's nicknames is "The Hillbilly Shakespeare," and if you want to know why (and why I think so little of modern "country" music), just look at this line: Your cheatin' heart will pine someday And crave the love you threw away Dang. This is one of the greatest classic songs in country music history. Your Cheatin' Heart Written by Hank Williams Released as a single, 1953 What a song: