Despite releasing just two albums in his lifetime, Hank Williams’ name is practically synonymous with country music. Releasing genre standards like “Your Cheatin’ Heart” and “Hey Good Lookin’,” Williams’ life and career were cut tragically short on New Year’s Day 1953, when the 29-year-old died of heart failure in the back seat of a car near Oak Hill, West Virginia. Just two months earlier, Williams released “I’ll Never Get Out of This World Alive,” the final single of his lifetime. On this day (Jan. 24), just three weeks after his untimely death, “I’ll Never Get Out of This World Alive” topped the country singles chart—dethroning the singer-songwriter’s own “Jambalaya (On The Bayou).”
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Co-written by Hank Williams and songwriter Fred Rose, the opening verse of “I’ll Never Get Out of This World Alive” took on an eerily prescient meaning after the Singing Kid’s death: I had lots of luck, but it’s all been bad / No matter how I struggle and strive / I’ll never get out of this world alive.
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Williams cut the song at Nashville’s Castle Studio in June 1952, with Chet Akins on lead guitar. Akins later noted that the “I Saw The Light” crooner’s health had noticeably deteriorated by then. “After each take, he’d sit down in a chair,” the country music pioneer said. “I remember thinking, ‘Hoss, you’re not jivin’,’ because he was so weak that all he could do was just sing a few lines, and then just fall in the chair.”
Hank Williams Scored Three No. 1 Hits the Year of His Death
Three months after cutting “I’ll Never Get Out of This World Alive,” Hank Williams entered Castle Studios again for his final recording session on Sept. 23, 1952. That day, he recorded three songs—“Kaw-Liga,” “I Could Never Be Ashamed of You,” “Take These Chains from My Heart,” and “Your Cheatin’ Heart.”
[RELATED: Country Flashback: Hank Williams Joins Roy Acuff, the Carter Family, and More Country Royalty for a Country Gospel Classic]
“I Could Never Be Ashamed of You” was the B-side of “I’ll Never Get Out of This World Alive.” Released in November 1952, it went to No. 1 on the country chart. All three of the other songs also went to No. 1 after Williams died.
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