Cheatin’ Heart

It was Sep. 23, 1952, in a Nashville, Tenn., recording studio.

Hank Williams was recording four songs that day for MGM Records, steel guitar player Don Helms remembered.

“He said ‘This next song goes like this, and he sang a couple of lines,” Helms said.

“I gave him a little intro and he sang it all the way through and nobody made a mistake bad enough to do it again.

“I never saw him alive again. The song was Your Cheatin’ Heart.”

Less than four months later, Williams was dead. Your Cheatin’ Heart was released after his death and became the song most connected to his legacy and is generally considered one of the two or three songs that define country music.

It’s his signature song, yet Hank never played it on stage with his band, never heard it played on the radio, never knew it became a hit.

I was laid up sick the last week or so and thought a lot about Hank and Your Cheatin’ Heart.

Sometimes I have the vague feeling that the reality we experience in the moment is merely the shadow of a larger experience that we might not see yet.

We do things today and let them pass into yesterday, but the full meaning might not be known until tomorrow or beyond.

A kind word or a good deed that seems small could become a big thing to someone else or to a crowd. Same with a careless word or something done thoughtlessly in haste.

I came kicking into the world less than two weeks after Hank recorded Your Cheatin’ Heart and can’t guess how many I have listened to and sang along with Your Cheatin’ Heart, just as millions of others have.

And Hank sang it once, to record it. How fortunate we are that he didn’t think “Hey, I’m getting tired today. Let’s record this one in our next session.”