"Hey, Good Lookin'" is a 1951 song written and recorded by

Hank Williams Hiram "Hank" Williams (September 17, 1923 – January 1, 1953) was an American singer, songwriter, and musician. An early pioneer of country music, he is regarded as one of the most significant and influential musicians of the 20th century. W ...

, and his version was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2001. In 2003, CMT voted the Hank Williams version number 19 on ''CMT's 100 Greatest Songs of Country Music''. Since its original 1951 recording, it has been covered by a variety of artists.

Background

The Hank Williams song "borrowed heavily" from the 1942 song with the same title written by

Cole Porter Cole Albert Porter (June 9, 1891 – October 15, 1964) was an American composer and songwriter. Many of his songs became Standard (music), standards noted for their witty, urbane lyrics, and many of his scores found success on Broadway the ...

for the Broadway

musical Musical is the adjective of music. Musical may also refer to: * Musical theatre, a performance art that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance * Musical film Musical film is a film genre in which songs by the Character (arts), charac ...

'' Something for the Boys''. The lyrics for the Williams version begin as a come on using

double entendre A double entendre (plural double entendres) is a figure of speech or a particular way of wording that is devised to have a double meaning, one of which is typically obvious, and the other often conveys a message that would be too socially unacc ...

s related to food preparation ("How's about cookin' somethin' up with me?"). By the third and fourth verses, the singer is promising the object of his affection that they can become an exclusive couple ("How's about keepin' steady company?" and "I'm gonna throw my date book over the fence"). Williams was friendly with musician Jimmy Dickens. Having told Dickens that Dickens needed a hit record if he were to become a star, Williams said he would write it, and penned "Hey Good Lookin'" in only 20 minutes while on a plane with Dickens, Minnie Pearl, and Pearl's husband Henry Cannon. A week later, Williams recorded it himself, jokingly telling Dickens, "That song's too good for you!" "Hey, Good Lookin'" was recorded on March 16, 1951, at Castle Studio in

Nashville Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, locat ...

. The same session also produced the single's B-side " My Heart Would Know", as well as another pair of tunes that were released as singles: " I Can't Help It (If I'm Still in Love with You)" and " Howlin' at the Moon", released on April 27, 1951. The "Hey, Good Lookin'" single followed on June 22. Williams was backed on the session by members of his Drifting Cowboys band, including Jerry Rivers (fiddle), Don Helms (steel guitar), Sammy Pruett (electric guitar), Jack Shook (rhythm guitar), Ernie Newton or "Cedric Rainwater", also known as Howard Watts (bass), and either Owen Bradley or producer Fred Rose on piano. As author Colin Escott observes, "On one level, it seemed to point toward

rock 'n' roll Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock-n-roll, and rock 'n' roll) is a Genre (music), genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It Origins of rock and roll, originated from African ...

( hot rods, dancing sprees, goin' steady, and soda pop), but the rhythm plodded along with a steppity-step piano, and Hank sounded almost dour." Williams performed the song on the ''Kate Smith Evening Hour'' on March 26, 1952; the appearance remains one of the few existing film clips of the singer performing live. He is introduced by Roy Acuff and banters with a young June Carter. He is wearing his famous white cowboy suit adorned in musical notes. He performed "Hey, Good Lookin'" and joined in with the rest of the cast singing his own " I Saw the Light". The rare clip displays the singer's exuberance on stage while performing an up-tempo number, and he appears at ease in the relatively new broadcast medium of television. The kinescope from this show provided the footage for the Hank Williams Jr. video " There's a Tear in My Beer" some 37 years later.

Notable cover versions

*In 1951, Jo Stafford and

Frankie Laine Frankie Laine (born Francesco Paolo LoVecchio; March 30, 1913 – February 6, 2007) was an American singer and songwriter whose career spanned nearly 75 years, from his first concerts in 1930 with a marathon dance company to his final performa ...

released a cover of the song as a duet, peaking at number 21 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 charts. *On his 1990 album ''Where There's Smoke There's Fire'', Buckwheat Zydeco performs the song as a duet with Dwight Yoakam. *Country music band the Mavericks released a cover version in 1992 from the album '' From Hell to Paradise.'' This rendition peaked at number 74 on the country singles charts. *In 2004, Jimmy Buffett covered the song for his '' License to Chill'' album. Clint Black, Kenny Chesney, Alan Jackson, Toby Keith, and George Strait were all featured on this rendition, which peaked at number eight on the '' Billboard'' Hot Country Singles and Tracks (now

Hot Country Songs Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine in the United States. This 50-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly by collecting airplay data along with digital sales and streaming. ...

) charts in 2004. It was also the last top-10 country hit for Black. This rendition was made into a

music video A music video is a video that integrates a song or an album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device intended to ...

Background

Notable cover versions

Chart performance

Hank Williams

The Mavericks

Jimmy Buffett

Year-end charts

References

Further reading