"My Sweet Love Ain't Around" is a song written and performed by

Hank Williams Hank Williams (born Hiram Williams; September 17, 1923 – January 1, 1953) was an American singer, songwriter, and musician. Regarded as one of the most significant and influential American singers and songwriters of the 20th century, he reco ...

. It was his third single on

MGM Records MGM Records was a record label founded by the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film studio in 1946 for the purpose of releasing soundtrack recordings (later LP albums) of their musical films. It transitioned into a pop music label that continued into the ...

released in January 1948.

Background

"My Sweet Love Ain't Around" was recorded at Castle Studio in

Nashville Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and the ...

with Fred Rose producing and backing from Jerry Byrd (steel guitar), Robert "Chubby" Wise (fiddle), Zeke Turner (lead guitar), probably Louis Innis (bass) and either

Owen Bradley William Owen Bradley (October 21, 1915 – January 7, 1998) was an American musician and record producer who, along with Chet Atkins, Bob Ferguson, Bill Porter, and Don Law, was one of the chief architects of the 1950s and 1960s Nashville sou ...

or Rose on piano. After the underwhelming performance of " On the Banks of the Old Ponchartrain," "My Sweet Love Ain't Around" returned to the harder sound that had made " Move It On Over" a #4 hit the year before. With Jerry Byrd's steel guitar mimicking a train whistle and William's lazy, blues-drenched vocal, the song may have been too raw for country audiences at the time, which may explain why the single failed to chart. In light of his later monumental chart success, many people forget that Williams had recorded seven singles by January 1948, of which six were flops. As biographer Colin Escott notes, "At this point, Hank was no more than a sidebar to Fred Rose's activities and was far from MGM's best-selling artist." By October 1947, MGM had snagged the enormously popular

Bob Wills James Robert Wills (March 6, 1905 – May 13, 1975) was an American Western swing musician, songwriter, and bandleader. Considered by music authorities as the founder of Western swing, he was known widely as the King of Western Swing (although S ...

from

Columbia Columbia may refer to: * Columbia (personification), the historical female national personification of the United States, and a poetic name for America Places North America Natural features * Columbia Plateau, a geologic and geographic region in ...

and enjoyed its first big hit with "Life Gits Tee-Jus, Don't It" by singer Carson Robison. Williams' career would explode with the release of " Lovesick Blues" in January 1949.

Cover versions

*Nita, Rita & Ruby released a version of the song on

RCA Victor RCA Records is an American record label currently owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside RCA's former long-time rival Columbia Records; also Aris ...

in 1957. *The song appears on Johnny Paycheck's 1970 album ''

Again Again may refer to: Entertainment * ''Again'' (video game), a 2009 adventure game for the Nintendo DS * ''Again!!'' manga * ''Again!'', a 2011 children's book by Emily Gravett * ''Again'' (film), a 2015 Japanese film Music * Again (band), a ...

''. *The Osbourne Brothers recorded the song at

Bradley's Barn ''Bradley's Barn'' is the fifth studio album by American rock group The Beau Brummels. Released in October 1968, it contains the singles "Long Walking Down to Misery" and "Cherokee Girl." The album has received critical acclaim as an early examp ...

in Nashville in 1970. *The song appears on the

Red Allen Henry James "Red" Allen, Jr. (January 7, 1908 – April 17, 1967) was an American jazz trumpeter and vocalist whose playing has been claimed by Joachim-Ernst Berendt and others as the first to fully incorporate the innovations of Louis Armstr ...

retrospective Red Allen: The Folkway Years 1964–1983. *Songwriter

Joe Sun James Joseph Paulsen (September 25, 1943 – October 25, 2019), known professionally as Joe Sun, was an American country music singer-songwriter. Recording for the Ovation and Elektra Records labels, Sun charted fourteen singles on the Hot ...

covered the song on his 1980 album ''Livin' on Honky Tonk Time''. *

Suzy Bogguss Susan Kay Bogguss (born December 30, 1956) is an American country music singer and songwriter. She began her career in the 1980s as a solo singer. In the 1990s, six of her songs were Top 10 hits, three albums were certified gold, and one album re ...

scored a minor hit with the song in 1989, which rose to #38 on the ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

'' country singles chart. *

Johnny Colla John Victor Colla (born July 2, 1952) is an American musician (playing the guitar and saxophone), singer and songwriter. He is a founding member of the American rock band Huey Lewis and the News. He has been heavily involved in the San Franci ...

and the Lucky Devils recorded a version of the song for the LP ''Black with Flames''. * Rhonda Vincent included the song on her 2008 album ''The Storm Still Rages''. * Gene Watson and Rhonda Vincent recorded the song as a duet on their 2011 album ''Your Money and my Good Looks''. *

Rebel Records Rebel Records is an independent American record label based in Charlottesville, Virginia that specializes in bluegrass and old time music. The label was founded in Mount Rainier, Maryland in 1959 by Dick Freeland, Bill Carroll and Sonny Compton. ...

bluegrass group Rock County recorded a version for their 2002 self-titled album.

References

Bibliography

* {{authority control 1947 songs Songs written by Hank Williams Hank Williams songs Song recordings produced by Fred Rose (songwriter)