[40] As a result of the new variety of his repertoire, Williams published his first songbook, Original Songs of Hank Williams. 'The Garden Spot Programs' 1950", "Tom Hiddleston played country icon Hank Williams in biopic", "File Action to Untangle Hank Williams Estate", "Mother's Best, Hank's Best: A Conversation With Jett Williams and the Students", "The Year's Top Country & Western Artists/The Year's Top Country & Western Records", Listing of all Hank Williams' songs and alternatives, Pulitzer Prize Special Citations and Awards, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hank_Williams&oldid=997662174, Articles with unsourced statements from December 2019, Articles with unsourced statements from September 2018, Articles with unsourced statements from April 2020, Articles needing additional references from December 2019, All articles needing additional references, Wikipedia articles with MusicBrainz identifiers, Wikipedia articles with SNAC-ID identifiers, Wikipedia articles with SUDOC identifiers, Wikipedia articles with Trove identifiers, Wikipedia articles with WORLDCATID identifiers, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, Special Awards and Citation for his pivotal role in transforming country music, Katherine Williams-Dunning (granddaughter), This page was last edited on 1 January 2021, at 17:03. Williams said he did not, and those are believed to be his last words. [123] The original acetates made their way to the possession of Jett Williams. … [78] Carr later drove on until he stopped for fuel at a gas station in Oak Hill, West Virginia, where he realized that Williams was dead, and rigor mortis had already set in. Hank Williams Sr. died five days before his daughter was born in 1953 to Bobbie Jett. [citation needed], In November 1951, Williams suffered a fall during a hunting trip with his fiddler Jerry Rivers in Franklin, Tennessee. The album included unreleased songs. [84], His final single, released in November 1952 while he was still alive, was titled "I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive". Audrey had singing aspirations of her own and sometimes performed with Hank on radio shows. [41] The recordings "Never Again" and "Honky Tonkin'" became successful, and earned Williams the attention of MGM Records. Audrey Williams was Hank Williams' first wife, and she provided inspiration for some of his most famous and unhappy songs. [54], In 1950, Williams began recording as "Luke the Drifter" for his religious-themed recordings, many of which are recitations rather than singing. Audrey Williams divorced him that year; the next day he recorded "You Win Again" and "I Won't be Home No More". In 1930, when Williams was seven years old, his father began suffering from facial paralysis. [97], In 1977, a national organization of CB truck drivers voted "Your Cheatin' Heart" as their favorite record of all time. It was at this time that Williams decided to change his name informally from Hiram to Hank. [55], Around this time Williams released more hit songs, such as "My Son Calls Another Man Daddy", "They'll Never Take Her Love from Me", "Why Should We Try Anymore", "Nobody's Lonesome for Me", "Long Gone Lonesome Blues", "Why Don't You Love Me", "Moanin' the Blues", and "I Just Don't Like This Kind of Living". In 1990, Jett told her story in the memoir Ain't Nothin' as Sweet as My Baby. Arthur Whiting was also a guitarist for the Drifting Cowboys. [38][39], In 1945, when he was back in Montgomery, Williams started to perform again for the WSFA radio station. [91], Williams had 11 number one country hits in his career ("Lovesick Blues", "Long Gone Lonesome Blues", "Why Don't You Love Me", "Moanin' the Blues", "Cold, Cold Heart", "Hey, Good Lookin'", "Jambalaya (On the Bayou)", "I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive", "Kaw-Liga", "Your Cheatin' Heart", and "Take These Chains from My Heart"), as well as many other top 10 hits. Later on, Williams recorded one of the songs that Payne taught him, "My Bucket's Got a Hole in It". Hank recorded this track on 30 August 1949 in Ohio. The ceremony featured Ferlin Husky interpreting "I Saw the Light". But in the short amount of time he had, Williams gave the world a series of hits. Regarded as one of the most significant and influential American singers and songwriters of the 20th century, Williams recorded 35 singles (five released posthumously) that reached the Top 10 of the Billboard Country & Western Best Sellers chart, including 11 that ranked number one (three posthumously). [65], During his last recording session on September 23, 1952, Williams recorded "Kaw-Liga", along with "Your Cheatin' Heart", "Take These Chains from My Heart", and "I Could Never be Ashamed of You". But Hank III found his own voice in the 2000s with the foul-mouthed and feisty Lovesick, Broke & Driftin' and Straight to Hell. She didn't know about her famous bloodline until she reached adulthood. His mother subsequently demanded that the school board terminate the coach; when they refused, the family moved to Montgomery, Alabama. [62] On December 13, 1951, he had a spinal fusion at the Vanderbilt University Hospital, being released on December 24. The Pulitzer Prize jury in 2010 awarded him a posthumous special citation "for his craftsmanship as a songwriter who expressed universal feelings with poignant simplicity and played a pivotal role in transforming country music into a major musical and cultural force in American life. PolyGram contended that Williams' contract with MGM Records, whose back catalogue they owned at the time, prior to current owner Universal Music's absorption of PolyGram the next year, gave them rights to release the radio recordings. Williams and Sheppard lived and worked together in Mobile. The film makes note of multiple women Williams loved, impregnated, and then separated from along the way, and in real life, the singer fathered two children… Trying to break into the music business, Williams entered talent contests all over the country. "Your Cheatin' Heart" was written and recorded in September 1952 but released in late January 1953 after Williams' death. The marriage was declared illegal, since Sheppard's divorce from her previous husband did not comply with the legally required 60-day trial reconciliation. [93] He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame[94] in 1961 and into the Alabama Music Hall of Fame in 1985. His parents were Jessie Lillybelle "Lillie" (née Skipper) (1898 - 1955) and Elonzo Huble "Lon" Williams (1891 - 1970), who was of Welsh, Irish, Scottish, English, French, Swiss and German ancestry. There he and Perry Como sang "Hey Good Lookin'". But his hard-living lifestyle left him dead and immortalized at the age of 29. 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