About The Song
“Lovesick Blues” is a Tin Pan Alley song that became a defining hit for American country singer Hank Williams. The piece was originally composed by Cliff Friend with lyrics by Irving Mills, published in 1922 and used in the musical revue Oh, Ernest. Early recordings appeared in the 1920s by performers such as Elsie Clark and Jack Shea, and the song was later cut in a blues-inflected style by Emmett Miller in 1925 and 1928, then by country singer Rex Griffin in 1939. These later versions, especially those by Miller and Griffin, provided the template that Williams would adapt in the late 1940s.
Hank Williams first encountered “Lovesick Blues” through those earlier country and minstrel-style recordings. After joining the Louisiana Hayride radio show in 1948, he added the song to his live repertoire. Producer Horace Logan later recalled that the audience reaction the first time Williams sang it on the Hayride was overwhelmingly positive, with listeners responding strongly to his yodeling and phrasing. Encouraged by that response, Williams pushed to record the song commercially, despite initial reluctance from his producer Fred Rose, who doubted that a 1920s Tin Pan Alley number would work as a modern hillbilly single.
The recording session for “Lovesick Blues” took place at Herzog Studio in Cincinnati, Ohio, on December 22, 1948. Williams was backed by a small country band rather than the jazz-oriented accompaniment used on earlier versions. The session line-up included Clyde Baum (mandolin), Zeke Turner (electric guitar), Jerry Byrd (steel guitar), Louis Innis (rhythm guitar), Tommy Jackson (fiddle) and Willie Thawl (bass). The finished track ran around 2 minutes and 45 seconds and combined a blues-based structure with honky-tonk instrumentation, framed by Williams’s distinctive yodels and rhythmic pushes on key lines.
MGM Records released “Lovesick Blues” on February 11, 1949, as single MGM 10352, with “Never Again (Will I Knock on Your Door)” on the B-side. The single was an immediate success, reportedly selling around 50,000 copies in its first two weeks. On Billboard it reached No. 1 on the Top Country & Western Singles chart and remained there for sixteen weeks; overall it stayed on the country listings for roughly forty-two weeks. It also crossed over to the pop-oriented Most Played in Jukeboxes chart, where it peaked around No. 24. Billboard named it the top country and western record of 1949, while Cash Box called it the “Best Hillbilly Record of the Year.”
The impact of the record on Williams’s career was substantial. “Lovesick Blues” was his first No. 1 country hit and led directly to an invitation to appear on the Grand Ole Opry in June 1949, where he received an extended standing ovation. The success of the song helped establish his national profile and earned him nicknames such as “The Lovesick Blues Boy” and “Mr. Lovesick Blues.” It became a staple of his live shows, often used as the closing number, and is frequently cited as the track that transformed him from a regional honky-tonk act into a major country star.
Lyrically, “Lovesick Blues” presents a narrator overwhelmed by unrequited love, lamenting that he is in love with a woman who does not care for him in return. The simple, direct language and repeated refrain allow room for vocal embellishment, especially the yodeling passages that Williams emphasized in performance. Over time, his version has come to be regarded as the definitive interpretation of the song. It has been widely reissued on compilations, and in 2004 the Library of Congress added Williams’s recording of “Lovesick Blues” to the National Recording Registry, recognizing its cultural, historical and aesthetic significance in American music.
The song’s reach extends beyond country music. A later version by Australian singer Frank Ifield topped the UK Singles Chart in 1962, and numerous artists across genres have covered it in concert and on record. Nevertheless, when modern listeners and critics refer to “Lovesick Blues,” they most often mean Hank Williams’s 1949 recording, which is regularly included in lists of his best work and of the greatest country songs. In this way, a Tin Pan Alley tune from the early 1920s became permanently associated with a late-1940s honky-tonk sound and with one of country music’s most influential performers.
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Lyric
I got a feelin’ called the blues, oh Lord
Since my baby said goodbye
Lord, I don’t know what I’ll do
All I do is sit and sigh, oh Lord
That last long day, she said goodbye
Well Lord, I thought I would cry
She’ll do me, she’ll do you
She’s got that kind of lovin’
Lord, I love to hear her when she calls me sweet da-a-addy
Such a beautiful dream
I hate to think it’s all over
I’ve lost my heart it seems
I’ve grown so used to you somehow
Well, I’m nobody’s sugar daddy now
And I’m lo-o-onesome
I got the lovesick blues
Well, I’m in love, I’m in love with a beautiful gal
That’s what’s the matter with me
Well, I’m in love, I’m in love with a beautiful gal
But she don’t care about me
Lord, I tried and tried to keep her satisfied
But she just wouldn’t stay
So now that she is leavin’
This is all I can say
I got a feelin’ called the blues, oh Lord
Since my baby said goodbye
Lord, I don’t know what I’ll do
All I do is sit and sigh, oh Lord
That last long day she said goodbye
Well Lord, I thought I would cry
She’ll do me, she’ll do you
She’s got that kind of lovin’
Lord, I love to hear her when she calls me sweet da-a-addy
Such a beautiful dream
I hate to think it’s all over
I’ve lost my heart it seems
I’ve grown so used to you somehow
Lord, I’m nobody’s sugar daddy now
And I’m lo-o-onesome
I got the lovesick blues