Who wrote Your Cheatin' Heart?
Your Cheatin' Heart the title of the 1990 TV drama 'Your Cheatin' Heart' by John Byrne. Your Cheatin' Heart "Your Cheatin' Heart" is a song written and recorded by country music singer-songwriter Hank Williams in 1952, regarded as one of country's most important standards. Country music historian Colin Escott writes that "the song – for all intents and purposes – defines country music." He was inspired to write the song while driving with his fianceé from Nashville, Tennessee to Shreveport, Louisiana. After describing his first wife Audrey Sheppard as a "Cheatin' Heart", he dictated in minutes the lyrics to Billie Jean Jones. Produced
Your Cheatin' Heart friend, Braxton Schuffert, as he was about to play it, as "the best heart song (he) ever wrote". Williams is backed on the session by Tommy Jackson (fiddle), Don Helms (steel guitar), Chet Atkins (lead guitar), Jack Shook (rhythm guitar), and Floyd "Lightnin'" Chance (bass). While traveling to a scheduled New Year's show in Canton, Ohio, the driver found Williams dead on the backseat of the car during a stop in Oak Hill, West Virginia. "Your Cheatin' Heart" was released at the end of January 1953. Propelled by Williams' death, the song and the A-side "Kaw-Liga" became a hit, selling