‘Lovesick Blues’ was inspired by lonely troops
This week in 1949: The Soviets agree to lift Berlin blockade; 62,000 workers strike at Detroit Ford Plant; Army takes over all civilian jobs in Japan; and a singer from Mount Olive, Alabama, had scored country music’s No. 1 song for 16 weeks.
Back in the 1940’s and ’50s, country music was referred to as “hillbilly music.” And folks who performed it were called “hillbillies.”
Hiram King Williams was at the forefront of “hillbilly Music” in those days as he placed 42 songs on the country music charts and four of them on the pop charts.
The first of those two was a song titled “Lovesick Blues, which Cliff Friend claimed he wrote while serving as a pilot in World War I in Dayton, Ohio.
According to Friend, the idea came from noticing all the lovesick guys who left their wives and sweethearts behind when they joined the Armed Forces. He said all those guys had the “lovesick look” and that’s where the idea for the song came from.
After the war, Friend went to New York and recorded the song but his record bombed.
According to Friend, 20 years later a guy from Alabama claimed he wrote the song and sold it to Hank Williams for $100.
Acuff Rose Music in Nashville published the song and Friend still owned the copyright.
Friend said “Since I wrote the song and still owned the copyright – I made a lot of money when Hank Williams’ recording of the song made a hit. In the meantime, Frank Ifield recorded the song which sold over a four million copies. According to the record books, between Hank Williams and Frank Ifield, “Lovesick Blues” sold over 10 million copies.
Hank Williams’ recording of “Lovesick Blues” came on the country music charts March 5th, 1949, made it to No. 1 and stuck there for 16 weeks.
It was his 5th charted single and was on the charts for 42 weeks.
The MGM Records single also scored a No. 24 on the pop charts.
Hank Williams died January 1st, 1953 at age 29.