Hank Williams – Moanin’ the Blues

“Moanin’ the Blues” is a country and western song written and recorded by Hank Williams with His Drifting Cowboys for MGM Records. The track was recorded at Castle Studio in Nashville, Tennessee, on August 31, 1950, with longtime producer Fred Rose supervising the session. It was published by Acuff-Rose on October 25, 1950 and issued shortly afterward as MGM single 10832, backed with “Nobody’s Lonesome for Me.” Classified as honky-tonk and country blues, the record became Williams’s fourth No. 1 country single on the Billboard country chart in late 1950.

Session documentation and later research indicate that the musicians on the date likely included Jerry Rivers on fiddle, Don Helms on steel guitar, Sammy Pruett on electric guitar, and probably Jack Shook on rhythm guitar, with either Ernie Newton or Howard “Cedric Rainwater” Watts on bass. Some accounts also credit Fred Rose or Owen Bradley on organ and drummer Farris Coursey on snare, making the record one of only two Williams hits, along with “Kaw-Liga,” known to feature a full drum kit. The finished performance runs a little over two minutes and was cut specifically with jukebox and radio play in mind.

The single entered the Billboard country chart on November 18, 1950 and climbed steadily, reaching No. 1 in the final week of the year. Contemporary chart summaries and later discographies list it as one of Williams’s eleven country chart-toppers, alongside “Lovesick Blues,” “Long Gone Lonesome Blues” and “Why Don’t You Love Me.” Its B-side, “Nobody’s Lonesome for Me,” also performed well, peaking around the Top 10 on the country lists. Together the two sides illustrated Williams’s ability to balance upbeat, blues-based material with more reflective songs while maintaining strong commercial momentum.

Musically, “Moanin’ the Blues” follows a pattern established by Williams and Rose on earlier hits. Commentators note that its structure and approach echo “Lovesick Blues” and “Long Gone Lonesome Blues,” combining a driving rhythm with space for yodels and falsetto breaks. The rhythm is carried by prominently miked acoustic and electric guitars, reinforced by the snare drum, while steel guitar and fiddle provide short answering phrases between vocal lines. This mixture of country instrumentation, blues inflection and a light, almost rock-and-roll forward drive has led later writers to cite the track as an example of Williams’s contribution to the evolution of modern country rhythm.

Lyrically, the song presents a narrator who admits he is “moanin’ the blues” over a failed relationship. The verses describe sleepless nights, emotional distress and the feeling of being unable to escape sadness, all framed in direct, conversational language. Instead of detailed narrative, the lyric relies on repeated phrases and short images to convey mood, a technique common in both country and blues writing of the period. This concise, repetitive structure made the song easy for audiences to remember and sing along with, while still fitting Williams’s reputation for portraying emotional hardship in simple terms.

“Moanin’ the Blues” later provided the title for Williams’s second album, a 10-inch LP issued by MGM in September 1952 that compiled eight previously released singles recorded between 1947 and 1951. The album included several of his major hits and helped keep the song in circulation as the LP format slowly gained ground in country music. Over subsequent decades, “Moanin’ the Blues” has appeared on numerous compilations, including career overviews and thematic collections of his blues-oriented material. It has also been covered by artists such as Marty Robbins, Hank Williams Jr., Merle Haggard and Charley Pride, reinforcing its status as a standard within the Hank Williams catalogue and mid-century honky-tonk repertoire.