"Cold, Cold Heart" is a
country music
Country (also called country and western) is a popular music, music genre originating in the southern regions of the United States, both the American South and American southwest, the Southwest. First produced in the 1920s, country music is p ...
and
pop song written and first 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 ...
. This
blues ballad is both a classic of
honky-tonk and an entry in the ''
Great American Songbook''.
Hank Williams version
Williams adapted the melody for the song from
T. Texas Tyler's 1945 recording of "You'll Still Be in My Heart," written by Ted West in 1943.
In the Williams episode of ''
American Masters'', country music historian
Colin Escott states that Williams was moved to write the song after visiting his wife
Audrey in the hospital, who was suffering from an infection brought on by an abortion she had carried out at their home unbeknownst to Hank. Escott also speculates that Audrey, who carried on extramarital affairs as Hank did while he was on the road, may have suspected the baby was not her husband's. Florida bandleader Pappy Neil McCormick claims to have witnessed the encounter:

The first draft of the song is dated November 23, 1950, and was recorded on December 21, 1950, at Castle Studio in Nashville. Williams was backed on the session by members of his
Drifting Cowboys band, including
Jerry Rivers (fiddle),
Don Helms (steel guitar),
Chet Atkins
Chester Burton Atkins (June 20, 1924 – June 30, 2001), also known as "Mister Guitar" and "the Country Gentleman", was an American musician who, along with Owen Bradley and Bob Ferguson (musician), Bob Ferguson, helped create the Nash ...
(electric guitar),
Sammy Pruett (rhythm guitar),
Ernie Newton or "Cedric Rainwater", aka Howard Watts (bass), and either
Owen Bradley
William Owen Bradley (October 21, 1915 – January 7, 1998) was an American musician, bandleader and record producer who, along with Chet Atkins, Bob Ferguson, Bill Porter, and Don Law, was a chief architect of the 1950s and 60s Nashville sou ...
or producer Fred Rose on piano.
Like his earlier masterpiece "
I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry
"I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" is a song written and recorded by American country music singer-songwriter Hank Williams in 1949. The song has been covered by a wide range of musicians.
Authorship and production
Various writers quoted Williams ...
," it was released as the
B-side
The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph record, vinyl records and Compact cassette, cassettes, and the terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side of a Single (music), single usually ...
(MGM-10904B) to "Dear John" (MGM-10904A), since it was an unwritten rule in the country music industry that the faster numbers sold best. "Dear John" peaked at #8 after only a brief four-week run on ''
Billboard
A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...
'' magazine's country music charts, but "Cold, Cold Heart" proved to be a favorite of disc jockeys and jukebox listeners, whose enthusiasm for the song catapulted it to #1 on the country music charts.
Williams featured the song on his ''Mother's Best'' radio shows at the time of its release and performed the song on ''
The Kate Smith Evening Hour'' on April 23, 1952, which ran from September 1951 to June 1952; the appearance remains one of the few existing film clips of the singer performing live. He is introduced by his idol
Roy Acuff. Although a notorious binge drinker, Williams appears remarkably at ease on front of the cameras, with one critic noting, "He stared at the camera during his performance of 'Cold, Cold Heart' with a cockiness and self-confidence that bordered on arrogance."
The song would become a pop hit for
Tony Bennett
Anthony Dominick Benedetto (August 3, 1926 – July 21, 2023), known professionally as Tony Bennett, was an American jazz and traditional pop singer. He received many accolades, including 20 Grammy Awards, a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, ...
, paving the way for country songs to make inroads into the lucrative pop market. In the liner notes to the 1990
Polygram compilation ''Hank Williams: The Original Single Collection'',
Fred Rose's son
Wesley states, "Hank earned two major distinctions as a songwriter: he was the first writer on a regular basis to make country music national music; and he was the first country songwriter accepted by pop artists, and pop
A&R men."
Controversy
Music journalist
Chet Flippo and Kentucky historian W. Lynn Nickell both have asserted that 21-year-old Kentuckian
Paul Gilley wrote the lyrics, then sold them to Williams along with the rights, allowing Williams to take credit for it. They also claimed Gilley wrote the lyrics to "
I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry
"I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" is a song written and recorded by American country music singer-songwriter Hank Williams in 1949. The song has been covered by a wide range of musicians.
Authorship and production
Various writers quoted Williams ...
" and other songs before drowning at the age of 27. The claims have not been widely accepted.
Chart performance
Tony Bennett version
That same year, it was recorded in a pop version by
Tony Bennett
Anthony Dominick Benedetto (August 3, 1926 – July 21, 2023), known professionally as Tony Bennett, was an American jazz and traditional pop singer. He received many accolades, including 20 Grammy Awards, a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, ...
[ with a light orchestral arrangement from ]Percy Faith
Percy Faith (April 7, 1908 – February 9, 1976) was a Canadian–American bandleader, orchestrator, composer and conductor, known for his lush arrangements of instrumental ballads and Christmas standards. He is often credited with popularizin ...
. This recording was released by as catalog number 39449. It first reached the Billboard magazine
''Billboard'' (stylized in lowercase since 2013) is an American music and entertainment magazine published weekly by Penske Media Corporation. The magazine provides music charts, news, video, opinion, reviews, events and styles related to th ...
charts on July 20, 1951, and lasted 27 weeks on the chart, peaking at number 1.
The popularity of Bennett's version has been credited with helping to expose both Williams and country music to a wider national audience. ''Allmusic
AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...
'' writer Bill Janovitz discusses this unlikely combination:
That a young Italian singing waiter from Queens could find common ground with a country singer from Alabama's backwoods is testament both to Williams' skills as a writer and to Bennett's imagination and artist's ear.
Williams subsequently telephoned Bennett to say, "Tony, why did you ruin my song?" But that was a prank – in fact, Williams liked Bennett's version and played it on jukeboxes whenever he could. In his autobiography ''The Good Life'', Bennett described playing "Cold, Cold Heart" at the Grand Ole Opry
The ''Grand Ole Opry'' is a regular live country music, country-music Radio broadcasting, radio broadcast originating from Nashville, Tennessee, Nashville, Tennessee, on WSM (AM), WSM, held between two and five nights per week, depending on the ...
later in the 1950s. He had brought his usual arrangement charts to give to the house musicians who would be backing him, but their instrumentation was different and they declined the charts. "You sing and we'll follow you," they said, and Bennett says they did so beautifully, once again recreating an unlikely artistic merger.
The story of the Williams–Bennett telephone conversation is often related with mirth by Bennett in interviews and on stage; he still performs the song in concert. In 1997, the first installment of A&E's '' Live By Request'' featuring Bennett (who was also the show's creator), special guest Clint Black
Clint Patrick Black (born February 4, 1962) is an American country music singer, songwriter, musician, actor, and record producer. Signed to RCA Nashville in 1989, Black's debut album '' Killin' Time'' produced four straight number one singles ...
performed the song, after which Bennett recounted it. Bennett re-recorded the song as a duet with Tim McGraw
Samuel Timothy McGraw (born May 1, 1967) is an American country singer and actor. He has released 17 studio albums (11 for Curb Records, five for Big Machine Records and one for Arista Nashville). 10 of those albums have reached number one on ...
for the 2006 album Duets: An American Classic. A Google Doodle
Google Doodle is a special, temporary alteration of the logo on Google's homepages intended to commemorate holidays, events, achievements, and historical figures. The first Google Doodle honored the 1998 edition of the long-running annual Bu ...
featured Bennett's recording of the song on its Valentine's Day doodle in February 2012.
In 2012, Bennett recorded once again "Cold, Cold Heart" in a duet with Argentinian singer-songwriter Vicentico for '' Viva Duets'', a studio album of Bennett in collaboration with Latin American
Latin Americans (; ) are the citizenship, citizens of Latin American countries (or people with cultural, ancestral or national origins in Latin America).
Latin American countries and their Latin American diaspora, diasporas are Metroethnicity, ...
music stars, released in October 2012.
Notable cover versions
*Jazz singer Norah Jones
Norah Jones ( ; born Geethali Shankar; March 30, 1979) is an American singer-songwriter and musician. She has won several awards for her music and, , has sold more than 53 million records worldwide. '' Billboard'' named her the top jazz artist of ...
included a sultry swing version on her 2002 album ''Come Away With Me
''Come Away with Me'' is the debut studio album by American recording artist Norah Jones, released on February 26, 2002, by Blue Note Records. Recording sessions took place at Sorcerer Sound Studio in New York City and Allaire Studios in Sh ...
'', which was seen as "re-introducing" modern audiences to the song.
*Singer-songwriter Lucinda Williams
Lucinda Gayl Williams (born January 26, 1953) is an American singer-songwriter and a solo guitarist. She recorded her first two albums, ''Ramblin' on My Mind (Lucinda Williams album), Ramblin' on My Mind'' (1979) and ''Happy Woman Blues'' (198 ...
earned a nomination for the Grammy Award for Best Female Country Vocal Performance for her cover of the song in 2002.
Use in media
During the credits for the 2013 videogame '' Batman: Arkham Origins'', the Joker, voiced by Troy Baker, can be heard singing the song. Additionally, a DLC featuring Mr. Freeze, which takes place after the events of the main story, is named after the song.
A quest in the 2010 post-apocalyptic open world
In video games, an open world is a virtual world in which the Gamer, player can approach objectives freely, as opposed to a world with more linear and structured gameplay. Notable games in this category include ''The Legend of Zelda (video game ...
action-RPG '' Fallout: New Vegas'' uses this song as its name.
References
Sources
*
{{Authority control
1951 songs
Songs written by Hank Williams
Hank Williams songs
The Fontane Sisters songs
Tony Bennett songs
Petula Clark songs
Johnny Cash songs
Louis Armstrong songs
Aretha Franklin songs
Bill Haley songs
Rosemary Clooney songs
George Jones songs
Guy Mitchell songs
Jerry Lee Lewis songs
Frankie Laine songs
Glen Campbell songs
Number-one singles in the United States
Billboard Hot Country Songs number-one singles of the year