Hank Williams - 40 Greatest Hits POLL

Kinda gotta vote for "Lost Highway" because the line "neither good nor bad, just a kid like you" has been in my head for 40 years, since I first heard it. I've used it as an email signature, as a Twitter bio, and probably a few other places.

I had certainly heard the name, but I was properly introduced to Hank by a guy at my first job out of college. He made me a tape of this exact compilation and told me that whatever else America had or hadn't done, it had produced Hank Williams, which was enough for any country.

i voted "Honky Tonk Blues" -- although it's hard to go wrong here. i have this same disc, although my introduction was the CD with the bust cover art mentioned above with only 24 tracks.

okay, i'm already waffling. i think "Your Cheatin' Heart" is probably the best song he wrote. but most days i'd have to say his two strongest tracks are "Lost Highway" and "Lovesick Blues" -- or at least, these are the ones that move me the most and that i return to over and over. i don't know if it means anything that he didn't write them, although of course he wrote plenty of bangers.

Maybe this is the "rockist" perspective, but I'm not fond of his "funny"/rollicking stuff. On the other hand, "Ramblin' Man" is a little too on-point, it's a literal funeral march. So "Take These Chains From My Heart" for its melody.

I bought this comp when it came out. It got a lot of attention at the time IIRC. I didn’t have much familiarity with his music. It would fit nicely in the “classic albums you didn’t know and were knocked out” by thread. Love the proto rockers, the mournful slow ones, the lyrics, the whole package. Ended up voting for Cold Cold Heart.

I'm trying to be objective and consider all of them, but I imprinted on "I Saw the Light" as a child, so I may end up going with that. (Family of atheists, but my dad just really likes Hank Williams, so I heard it a lot.)

Still sorta shocked how his centennial passed with much mainstream notice. "I'll Never Get Out of this World Alive" is funny and spooky even without thinking about it as his final single.

His range as a songwriter and singer was really something — he could be heartbreaking, hilarious, horny, haunted, all with total conviction.

"My Bucket's Got A Hole In It" is a banger.

"Mansion on the Hill"

"Ramblin' Man" is probably my most played (and has that unforgettable opening couplet) but...

"I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" is one of the greatest songs ever written, it's the redneck's "Amazing Grace".

xps I know the harrowing stuff gets most of the attention, but I do enjoy his uptempo stuff a lot too and YES "My Bucket's Got A Hole In It" is a banger - IIRC that's even Hank playing the guitar solo.

"Howlin' at the Moon" (A-WOOOO!!) and "Baby, We're Really in Love," all great.

Always have loved this live Patsy Cline version of "Lovesick Blues":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqTfvR3igPA

I had this yellow set too, on double CD. I picked Ramblin’ Man because it’s just one of the greatest sad songs ever recorded - up there with anything from Billie Holliday’s Lady in Satin. Also — it just sounds so different to the other 39, it always stuck out to me. Close second: Move it on Over and I Saw the Light.

I had this yellow set too, on double CD. I picked Ramblin’ Man because it’s just one of the greatest sad songs ever recorded - up there with anything from Billie Holliday’s Lady in Satin. Also — it just sounds so different to the other 39, it always stuck out to me. Close second: Move it on Over and I Saw the Light.

Isn't "Ramblin' Man" the only song on the record that was first released under his alter-ego Luke the Drifter?

xxxp Patsy's version of "Lovesick Blues" is the definitive version, IMO. Still might vote for it here.

“Window Shopping” also a favorite, his voice sounds so good on that one

Fucking impossible!
A fave that wasn’t a hit: The Battle of Armageddon

Decision time

One of my favorite Hank covers

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qy0TWmslZl8

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Not at all what I expected!

Both songs tied at #1 are probably the ones I've heard covered most, so not surprising, but "(I Heard That) Lonesome Whistle" getting zero votes is a huge surprise - I would've predicted it for the top three.

the lyrics cancel it these days, but Kaw-liga was the first song that drew me in as a kid listening to my parents copy of the greatest hits. I now realize it's because it's the rare early country song built around drums.

xp any of those covers worth sharing?

There's so many, it's hard to pick one. "Lost Highway" sticks out because Hank didn't write that, it's a Leon Payne song. Here's the "original" version:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6P6_nwnZ-c

Per Colin Escott: "In recent years, 'Lost Highway' has been the title of several books, a stage show, a record label, and a television series. In 1997, director David Lynch used it as a film title. It's seen as one of Hank's defining records, if not a defining moment in country music, which makes it ironic that it barely dented the charts on release and doubly ironic that it's not even one of Hank's songs."

The Mekons also did it for my favorite Mekons album:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMzszayth1k

Jason & The Scorchers also did it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F67Jzc0cB-4

Jeff Buckley recorded it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLg0YzIZ1W4

Many, many more...

And "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" probably has a wider breadth of singers covering it: many jazz and pop singers have covered it, like Helen Merrill and Connie Stevens, lots of rock n' rollers like Little Richard, Elvis Presley, Tommy James and The Shondells, Del Shannon, The Everly Brothers, etc...but Alfred posted my favorite already, from Al Green on what's probably the greatest of his '70s masterpieces, Call Me.

Here's another famous cover besides Al Green's - Cassandra Wilson did it for New Moon Daughter which is her biggest (and possibly best) album:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBvVwgEjRsM

I'm mistaken, Alfred didn't post a link, so here it is!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WxrKOh3ZkI

This song isn't on the compilation, but Haggard's version is my favorite version of any Hank Williams song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwTxVaB1vVc

I think the number one track I would have gone for is called May You Be Alone. I thought I knew it from that 40 Greatest Hits set. The Godz cover it on Contact High.
Failing that I went for I Saw The Light.