Hank’s publishing company Acuff-Rose had little reason to want to push “Lovesick Blues.” Even though he claimed he had purchased all rights, Hank hadn’t actually written it. He didn’t really know who had. If Acuff-Rose was going to publish this number, they needed more proof. Legally, they would have felt much better dropping “Lovesick Blues” in favor of one of Hank’s own compositions. After all, Acuff-Rose had signed Williams because of his songwriting abilities, and they understandably wanted to publish songs written specifically by him. But Hank did manage to convince them that he owned the rights to “Lovesick Blues,” so Acuff-Rose gave the go-ahead and filed on the song. It was only after “Lovesick Blues” was released and hit the playlists that they discovered the song’s rights were actually owned by another publisher: Mills Music, a company founded by the song’s co-writer over twenty-five years earlier.
Its words had been written by Cliff Friend, a vaudeville pianist from Cincinnati. Friend had found inspiration for the song as a flyer stationed at Wright Field during World War One. He watched as lovesick fly-boys hovered over every phrase of every letter received from their sweethearts. The lyrics, along with Friend’s melody, were tweaked by a Russian-born Jewish band leader named Irving Mills. Mills would later write such classic big band songs as “It Don’t Mean A Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing).” The first commercially released recording on “Lovesick Blues” was done by Elsie Clark in 1922. Ukulele Ike also cut it about the same time. Jazz singer Emmett Miller tried the number three years later with the same results as Clark—absolutely no chart action and few sales. During the Depression a few others attempted to score with “Lovesick Blues,” but none of the records took off.
