Artist · chart history · #112 in indie & aaa artist polls
Hank Williams
Solo artist Mount Olive United States country music legend
Hank Williams is an artist from Mount Olive. Hank Williams has 18 chart appearances on 9 radio countdowns from 6 stations on RockLists, spanning 2001–2023. The most successful song on radio countdowns is “I'm so Lonesome I Could Cry”, which appears on 6 lists with a best position of #38. The station that charted Hank Williams most often is WFPK (Louisville, KY), with 10 appearances.
Hank Williams wrote the rulebook for country heartbreak, then was gone before he turned 30. Born in Mount Olive, Alabama, in 1923, he learned guitar from the blues player Rufus Payne, soaked up Roy Acuff, won an amateur talent contest and was working Montgomery radio by the late '30s, playing schoolhouses, movie theaters and bars with his band the Drifting Cowboys, managed by his mother. His drinking got him fired and rehired by radio station WSFA more than once.
He cut "Never Again" and "Honky Tonkin'" for Sterling, then signed with MGM, and "Move It On Over" in 1947 got him onto the Louisiana Hayride. His take on "Lovesick Blues" made him a star at the Grand Ole Opry. He could barely read music, yet he wrote songs of stark, aching plainness: "Your Cheatin' Heart", "Hey, Good Lookin'", and "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry", with its lonesome, keening melody. "Lost Highway" has a mournful, rambling sway all its own.
Back pain, substance abuse and a strained marriage to Audrey Sheppard wore him down, and on New Year's Day 1953 his heart gave out while he was being driven to a show in Canton, Ohio, somewhere near Oak Hill, West Virginia. He was 29. Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan and the Rolling Stones all learned from him; the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted him in 1987, and he received a special Pulitzer citation in 2010.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs by Hank Williams on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Peak year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | I'm so Lonesome I Could Cry | 6 | #38 | – | – | |
| 2 | Hey Good Lookin' | 2 | #340 | – | – | |
| 3 | You Win Again | 1 | #468 | – | – | |
| 4 | Kaw-liga | 1 | #706 | – | – | |
| 5 | Honky Tonkin | 1 | #936 | – | – | |
| 6 | Cold Cold Heart | 1 | #952 | – | – | |
| 7 | Lovesick Blues | 1 | #1011 | – | – | |
| 8 | Lost Highway | 1 | #500 | – | – | |
| 9 | Your Cheatin Heart | 1 | #1269 | – | – | |
| 10 | Move It On Over | 1 | #1751 | – | – |
Albums with charting songs
Where each song was first released, from MusicBrainz.
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