The Story Behind The Most Lonesome Song Ever Played in Country Radio
“I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry” was one of many songs Hank Williams wrote to express his crippling sadness. His tumultuous relationship inspired most of these songs with his first wife, Audrey Sheppard. “Hear that lonesome whippoorwill; he sounds too blue to fly. That midnight train is whining low. I’m so lonesome I could cry. I’ve never seen a night so long When time goes crawling by. The moon just went behind a cloud To hide its face and cry,” the song goes. Williams recorded the song at Herzog Studio in Cincinnati, Ohio, on a late summer day of 1949, as he approached his 26th birthday. But did you know Williams originally wrote “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry” as a spoken-word piece? The country legend planned to record the song as his alter-ego, “Luke the Drifter,” which explains why it contained very poetic imagery in lines such as “Did you ever see a robin weep when leaves begin to die?” Williams thought the piece was too discreet to put music, but he was urged by his friends and fellow musicians to add a melody. The song quickly became a favorite on country radio and a staple of Hank Williams’ live shows. It’s been covered a numerous amount of times. Glen Campbell, Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley, and Tanya Tucker are some more notable versions. But nobody does it better than the legend himself, Hank Williams. Singing the heartbreaking “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry,” he showed off his ability to channel the right emotions necessary to sing this heart-wrenching song. Watch it in the video below.
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