B-sides of singles were usually throwaways. If a song was a success, the record company would not want to have another hit on the same platter. The main goal is to sell records. If a song gets hot, you want the consumer to look forward to the next release and buy it, not already own it because it is on the same record. There are many instances where a B-side became the big hit. Country singles in the 1940s typically would relegate a slower song to the B-side. The conventional thinking was the uptempo numbers would be the big sellers.
Hank Williams continually proved that theory wrong. Of course, his uptempo songs were great, but his slower, introspective songs went on to be some of his most iconic. A few examples include “Pan American” with “Honky Tonkin’” on the flip side; “Howlin’ at the Moon” coupled with “I Can’t Help It (If I’m Still In Love with You)”; and “My Bucket’s Got a Hole In It” paired with “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry.” All three B-sides achieved great success and have grown to legendary status. One of the biggest hits of Williams’ career was put on the B-side of “Dear John.” Let’s take a look at the story behind “Cold, Cold Heart” by Hank Williams.
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I tried so hard, my dear, to show that you’re my every dream.
Yet you’re afraid each thing I do is just some evil scheme
A memory from your lonesome past keeps us so far apart
Why can’t I free your doubtful mind and melt your cold, cold heart
A No. 1 B-Side
MGM Records released “Dear John,” backed with “Cold, Cold Heart,” on February 2, 1951. The A-side peaked at No. 8 on the Billboard Country and Western chart, while the B-side went all the way to No. 1. Williams adapted the melody of “Cold, Cold Heart” from T. Texas Tyler’s 1945 recording of “You’ll Still Be in My Heart.” Lyrically, it was similar, but melodically, it was nearly identical. Williams is said to have written the lyrics after visiting his wife Audrey in the hospital after she suffered from an infection brought on by an abortion.
Another love before my time made your heart sad and blue
And so my heart is paying now for things I didn’t do
In anger, unkind words are said that make the teardrops start
Why can’t I free your doubtful mind and melt your cold, cold heart
“She’s Got the Coldest Heart I Ever Seen’
There were many versions of the story, but they all involved the tumultuous relationship between Hank and his first wife Audrey. In 1973, songwriter and journalist Dorothy Horstman interviewed Audrey. She recounted the events she said sparked the inspiration for the song: “I was in the hospital just over some little minor something. We’d had an argument, and he’d come in and I wouldn’t even talk to him. We had been in New York two or three weeks before I went into the hospital, and he’d bought me this fur coat—first fur coat I’d ever owned. Anyway, he said to the housekeeper he was gonna take this fur coat out there to the hospital. I’d talk to the kids, but I wouldn’t talk to him. He came back that night, and on the way back, he said to Hank Jr.’s nurse, ‘She’s got the coldest heart I ever seen.’ Then he came in the den and wrote that song. He got so jealous of men. God knows why. I wasn’t doing anything except staying in the background and trying to help him if I could. There was so many stories told. The bigger he got, he always had such a fear of losing me, and I don’t know why. I certainly never gave him any reason.”
You’ll never know how much it hurts to see you sit and cry
You know you need and want my love, yet you’re afraid to try
Why do you run and hide from life, to try it just ain’t smart
Why can’t I free your doubtful mind and melt your cold, cold heart
“Cold, Cold Heart” was recorded on December 21, 1950, at Castle Studio in downtown Nashville. Williams was backed by members of the Drifting Cowboys, including Don Helms on steel guitar and Jerry Rivers on fiddle, and studio musicians rounded out the recording. Chet Atkins and Sammy Pruett played guitars, and Ernie Newton or Howard Watts played bass. Owen Bradley or Fred Rose played the piano.
A No. 1 Hit for Bennett
On July 2, 1951, Columbia Records released a version of the song recorded by Tony Bennett in New York City, which reached No. 1 on the Billboard pop chart. The success of Bennett’s version sparked new interest in country music to a broader, mainstream audience. Williams performed the song on The Kate Smith Evening Hour on April 23, 1952, which provides us with one of the few existing film clips from the singer’s short career. Bennett appeared on the Grand Ole Opry later in the ’50s and recounted in his autobiography The Good Life his interaction with the staff band who would be backing him. He had brought his usual charts to give to the musicians, but their instrumentation was different and they declined them. “You sing, and we’ll follow you,” they said. Bennett says they did so beautifully, once again recreating an unlikely artistic merger.
There was a time when I believed that you belonged to me
But now I know your heart is shackled to a memory
The more I learn to care for you, the more we drift apart
Why can’t I free your doubtful mind and melt your cold, cold heart
In 1951, after “Cold, Cold Heart” hit No. 1, songwriter Clarke Van Ness filed a lawsuit against Williams, claiming the song was similar to “You’ll Still Be in My Heart.” Ted West wrote the song in 1943 and sold it to Buddy Starcher, who rewrote some of the lyrics and sold it to Van Ness. The suit was settled in favor of Van Ness on January 13, 1955, two years after the death of Hank Williams.
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