(I Heard That) Lonesome Whistle

1951 song by Hank Williams and Jimmie Davis May 2021 August 2026 (I Heard That) Lonesome Whistle 1951 12 31 Jimmie Davis Music Corp.U.S. Copyright Office Virtual Card Catalog 1946-1954 https://vcc.copyright.gov/browse 2021-09-22 vcc.copyright.gov single Hank Williams With His Drifting Cowboys Crazy Heart 1951 9 1951 7 25Hank Williams 78rpm Issues https://jazzdiscography.com/Artists/hank-williams/hank-williams-78-releases.php 2021-09-22 jazzdiscography.com Castle Studio, Nashville Country 2 25 MGM Hank Williams, Jimmie Davis Fred Rose Hey Good Lookin' 1951 Baby, We're Really in Love 1951 "(I Heard That) Lonesome Whistle" is a song written by Hank Williams and Jimmie Davis. It reached #9 on the Most Played Juke Box Folk Records in 1951. The Billboard Book Of Top 40 Country Hits: 1944-2006, Second edition Whitburn Joel Joel Whitburn 2004 Record Research 387 Background Hank Williams was a Jimmie Davis disciple, who scored big hits on Decca Records with "Nobody's Darlin' But Mine," "You Are My Sunshine" and "Worried Mind." It is unclear when he and Hank Williams wrote "(I Heard That) Lonesome Whistle." On one of his Mother's Best radio shows, recorded between January and March 1951, Williams tells his audience that he's going fishing with Jimmie Davis the next week, so the song may have been composed then.Escott Merritt MacEwen 2004 178 Containing two of country music's major themes, trains and prison, the song is notable for the way Hank mimics the sound of a train whistle on the word "lonesome." The song was likely an inspiration for Johnny Cash's "Folsom Prison Blues." It was recorded at Castle Studio in Nashville on July 25, 1951, with Fred Rose producing and backing from Don Helms (steel guitar), Jerry Rivers (fiddle), Sammy Pruett (lead guitar), Howard Watts (bass) and probably Jack Shook (rhythm guitar).Escott Merritt MacEwen 2004 345 Acuff-Rose songwriter Helen Hudgins later recalled the stiflingly hot summer session: "Hank had his shirt unbuttoned all the way, and he was absolutely soaking wet. It seemed that all he was...was voice. It came up from I don't know where."Escott Merritt MacEwen 2004 177 In a June 2014 online Rolling Stone article, Joseph Hudak wrote of the song, "The sound is so stark, so unsettling, that it's easy to feel exactly what Williams was getting at in the performance: simple heartbreak." The song's title was truncated to "Lonesome Whistle" so that it could be listed on jukebox cards. It peaked at number 8 on the Billboard country singles chart. The B-side, Fred Rose's "Crazy Heart", outperformed it, peaking at number four. References Sources Escott Colin Colin Escott Merritt George MacEwen William Hank Williams: The Biography 2004 Little, Brown New York Category:Songs about loneliness Category:1951 songs Category:Hank Williams songs Category:Song recordings produced by Fred Rose (songwriter) Category:Songs written by Jimmie Davis Category:Songs written by Hank Williams Category:Songs about trains