About The Song
“You Win Again” is a 1952 song written and recorded by Hank Williams with His Drifting Cowboys. He recorded it at Castle Studio in Nashville on July 11, 1952, with Fred Rose producing. The track was published by Acuff-Rose on September 3, 1952 and released later that year by MGM as the B-side of single 11318, whose A-side was the up-tempo “Settin’ the Woods on Fire.” The recording runs about two minutes and thirty-six seconds and is generally described as a country blues ballad with a slow, mournful feel.
The timing of the session has often been highlighted in accounts of the song’s background. Williams cut “You Win Again” just one day after his divorce from his first wife, Audrey Williams, became final. Biographer Colin Escott and other writers have suggested that the lyric was shaped by this turbulent relationship, noting that several songs from this period of Williams’s career deal with themes of betrayal and emotional defeat. Early drafts reportedly carried the working title “I Lose Again” before Fred Rose suggested reversing it to the more striking “You Win Again.”
Session research and discographies list Jerry Rivers on fiddle, Don Helms on steel guitar and Harold Bradley on rhythm guitar, with Chet Atkins widely believed to have played lead guitar and Ernie Newton on bass. The performance is spare and understated: acoustic rhythm and bass provide a simple foundation while steel guitar and fiddle add restrained fills around Williams’s vocal. Rose’s production keeps the arrangement compact and focused on the singer, a typical approach in Williams’s early 1950s recordings for radio and jukebox use.
Lyrically, the song presents a narrator who knows his partner has been unfaithful but cannot bring himself to leave. It opens with the line, “The news is out all over town,” immediately framing the situation as public knowledge. Subsequent verses describe deception, broken promises and a sense of inevitable defeat, with the repeated conclusion that, despite everything, the other person “wins again.” Critics have pointed out that the lyric combines familiar country themes—infidelity, gossip, pride and resignation—into a concise portrait of someone unable to break a destructive attachment.
Although “You Win Again” was issued as a B-side, it still registered on the charts. At a time when radio and jukebox programmers preferred livelier A-sides, “Settin’ the Woods on Fire” carried the single to No. 2 on several Billboard country listings, while “You Win Again” itself peaked at No. 10 on the Most Played in C&W Juke Boxes chart, where it appeared for one week. Later chart reconstructions and discographies also list it among the notable country titles of 1952, even if it was not one of Williams’s biggest hits during his lifetime.
The song’s reputation grew significantly in the years that followed. It attracted immediate cover versions, including a 1952 pop recording by Tommy Edwards that reached No. 13 on the U.S. pop charts. Jerry Lee Lewis recorded a well-known version in 1957, and the song has since been covered by artists such as Fats Domino, Ray Charles, Rick Nelson, Roy Orbison, Del Shannon, George Jones, Glen Campbell and the Rolling Stones, among others. In 1980, Charley Pride’s rendition reached No. 1 on the Billboard country chart, demonstrating its continued appeal across generations.
Within Hank Williams’s catalogue, “You Win Again” is now regarded as one of his key ballads from the final year of his life. It appears on memorial compilations and career retrospectives, often grouped with songs like “Cold, Cold Heart” and “Your Cheatin’ Heart” in discussions of his writing about troubled relationships. The combination of a simple melodic line, restrained accompaniment and a lyric rooted in personal upheaval has helped the recording remain a reference point in studies of mid-century country music and Williams’s influence on later performers.
Video
Lyric
The news is out – all over town
That you’ve been seen – a-runnin’ ’round
I know that I – should leave, but then
I just can’t go – you win again.This heart of mine – could never see
What ev’rybod – y knew but me
Just trusting you – was my great sin
What can I do – you win again.I’m sorry for – your victim now
‘Cause soon his head – like mine will bow
He’ll give his heart – but all in vain
And someday say – you win again.You have no heart – you have no shame
You take true love – and give the blame
I guess that I – should not complain
I love you still – you win again.