About The Song
“Mind Your Own Business” is a country song written and recorded by Hank Williams with His Drifting Cowboys in early March 1949 at Castle Studio in Nashville, Tennessee. Produced by Fred Rose and released by MGM Records in July 1949, the single paired “Mind Your Own Business” with “There’ll Be No Teardrops Tonight” on the B-side. The song was published by Acuff-Rose on July 7, 1949, and became one of Williams’s early hits, reaching No. 6 on Billboard’s Country & Western Best Seller chart and staying on the list for two weeks. It helped solidify his growing national profile between “Wedding Bells” and “You’re Gonna Change (Or I’m Gonna Leave).”
The studio band on the session reflected the core of Williams’s late-1940s sound. He was backed by Dale Potter on fiddle, Don Davis on steel guitar, Zeke Turner on lead guitar, Clyde Baum on mandolin, Jack Shook on rhythm guitar, and probably Ernie Newton on bass. The same late-night recording date also produced other key tracks such as “You’re Gonna Change (Or I’m Gonna Leave),” “My Son Calls Another Man Daddy,” and “Honky Tonk Blues,” showing how productive this period was for Williams and producer Fred Rose. Musically, “Mind Your Own Business” sits in the space between honky-tonk and country blues, with a driving rhythm that anticipates elements of early rockabilly.
According to biographers, the lyrics were likely influenced by Williams’s turbulent marriage to his first wife, Audrey. In the song, the narrator addresses a neighborhood gossip who comments on his domestic arguments and personal life, telling him to “mind your own business” instead of spreading stories. The opening lines—“If the wife and I are fussin’, brother that’s our right / ’Cause me and that sweet woman’s got a license to fight”—sound like a direct reflection of the couple’s widely discussed disputes. Williams reportedly introduced the number on radio later in 1949 as a “little prophecy in song,” which listeners later connected to the eventual breakdown of the marriage.
Structurally, “Mind Your Own Business” has much in common with Williams’s earlier hit “Move It On Over.” Both songs use a mid-tempo, shuffle-like groove and mix humor with irritation, turning personal frustration into something audiences could sing along with. Commentators have noted that Williams often reused or adapted melodic ideas, and some analyses point out that the tune of “Mind Your Own Business” is very close to “Move It On Over,” though with different phrasing and lyric emphasis. This recycling was typical of country and blues songwriting of the era and did not reduce the song’s popularity with jukebox listeners.
Although Hank Williams and His Drifting Cowboys were the first to release “Mind Your Own Business,” they were not the only act to record it in 1949. American Songwriter notes that Jesse Rogers and His ’49ers also cut a version of the Williams-penned song around the same time, underscoring how quickly it was picked up by other performers. In 1964, Jimmy Dean’s cover reached No. 35 on the country chart, and the song continued to appear on tribute albums and artist projects, including Ernest Tubb’s and Charley Pride’s Hank Williams collections in later decades.
The most commercially successful remake came from his son, Hank Williams Jr. In 1986, Hank Jr. recorded a new version of “Mind Your Own Business” with guest appearances by Reba McEntire, Willie Nelson, Tom Petty and Reverend Ike. Issued as a single from his album Montana Cafe, this collaboration reached No. 1 on the Billboard country chart and stayed there for two weeks, giving the song a second life on radio nearly four decades after its original release. Since then, “Mind Your Own Business” has remained a recognizable Hank Williams title, appearing on compilations and in live sets, and is regularly cited as an example of how he combined sharp, observational lyrics with an accessible honky-tonk groove.
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Lyric
There’s a little master piece of nonsense
I wrote here couple of years ago, three years ago
That suit me
Lot of folks request this for other folks
Nobody hardly ever request this for they-selves
Thank you
Here it is
If you mind your business
You won’t have time
To be fooling around with mine, uh, let’s go
If the wife and I are fussin’, brother that’s our right
‘Cause me and that sweet woman’s got a license to fight
Why don’t you mind your own business?
Mind your own business
‘Cause if you mind your business, then you won’t be mindin’ mine
Oh, the woman on our party line’s the nosiest thing
She picks up her receiver when she knows it’s my ring
Why don’t you mind your own business?
Mind your own business
Well, if you mind your business, then you won’t be mindin’ mine
Well, I got a little gal, she wears her hair up high
The boys all whistle when she walks by
Why don’t they mind their own business?
Mind your own business
Well, if you mind your own business, then you won’t be minding mine
If I want to honky-tonk around a-two or three
Now, brother that’s my headache, don’t you worry ’bout me
Just mind your own business
Mind your own business
‘Cause if you mind your business, then you won’t be mindin’ mine
If I get my head beat black and blue
Now that my wife and my store wood too
Why don’t you mind your own business
Mind your own business
Well, if you mind your business, then you won’t be mindin’ mine
Mindin’ other people’s business seems to be high-toned
It takes all of my time, just to mind my own
Why don’t you mind your own business?
Mind your own business
‘Cause if you mind your own business, you’ll stay busy all the time
There is the business song
I got some business here too, Hank
You got some business? (Yes)
I wanna mind everybody’s business this morning
I wanna tell them how to make better biscuits and stuff