"(Last Night) I Heard You Crying in Your Sleep" is a song written and recorded by

Hank Williams Hiram "Hank" Williams (September 17, 1923 – January 1, 1953) was an American singer, songwriter, and musician. An early pioneer of country music, he is regarded as one of the most significant and influential musicians of the 20th century. W ...

MGM Records MGM Records was a record label founded by the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film studio in 1946 for the purpose of releasing soundtrack recordings (later LP albums) of their musical films. It transitioned into a pop music label that continued into the ...

. It was released as the B-side of " Move It on Over" in 1947.

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. Williams recorded the song on April 21, 1947, at Castle Studio in

Nashville Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, locat ...

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 Clyde Julian "Red" Foley (June 17, 1910 – September 19, 1968) was an American musician who made a major contribution to the growth of country music after World War II. For more than two decades, Foley was one of the biggest stars of the gen ...

's backing, including Zeke and

Zeb Turner Zeb Turner (June 23, 1915 – January 10, 1978) was an American country music songwriter and guitarist, and pioneer of rockabilly. He was born William Edward Grishaw in Lynchburg, Virginia, United States, and he renamed himself after a favori ...

(guitar), Brownie Raynolds (bass), Tommy Jackson (fiddle) and Smokey Lohman (steel guitar).

Cover versions

George Jones George Glenn Jones (September 12, 1931 – April 26, 2013) was an American Country music, country musician, singer, and songwriter. He achieved international fame for a long list of hit records, and is well known for his distinctive voice an ...

recorded the song for

United Artists United Artists (UA) is an American film production and film distribution, distribution company owned by Amazon MGM Studios. In its original operating period, it was founded in February 1919 by Charlie Chaplin, D. W. Griffith, Mary Pickford an ...

in 1962. * The song appears on

Cal Smith Calvin Grant Shofner (April 7, 1932 – October 10, 2013), known professionally as Cal Smith, was an American country musician, most famous for his 1974 hits " Country Bumpkin" and " It's Time to Pay the Fiddler". Career Calvin Grant Shofner was ...

's 1968 LP ''At Home with Cal Smith''. *

Roy Orbison Roy Kelton Orbison (April 23, 1936 – December 6, 1988) was an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist known for his distinctive and powerful voice, complex song structures, and dark, emotional ballads. Orbison's most successful periods were ...

cut the song for his 1970 Williams tribute ''

Hank Williams the Roy Orbison Way ''Hank Williams: The Roy Orbison Way'' is the fourteenth album recorded by Roy Orbison, and his eighth with MGM Records, released in August 1970. It is a tribute album to the songs of honky tonk singer Hank Williams, whom Orbison listed among his ...

''.

References

Sources

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Last Night I Heard You Crying in Your Sleep 1947 songs Hank Williams songs Songs written by Hank Williams Song recordings produced by Fred Rose (songwriter) Breakup songs