Now with “Lovesick Blues” the nation’s hottest song, they had been forced to hold their collective noses and invite him to become a member. Still, they were afraid that he would embarrass them. It was no secret that many were hoping he would fail. But on that historic night of Hank’s Opry debut, from the moment he hit the first note of “Lovesick Blues,” the wildly enthusiastic audience went crazy and wouldn’t let him leave the stage. Minnie Pearl was back in her dressing room and recalls, “I heard the incredible noise…it was like a stampede,” and like any great performer, the more thunderous the applause, the better Hank got. He was called back for six encores that night, which had never happened before and has never happened since. It was an evening never to be forgotten in the annals of the Grand Ole Opry.
In the end, it was Hank Williams’ own compositions that immortalized him and made him a timeless music icon. But the incredible irony of how Hank’s biggest hit “Lovesick Blues” (written by a Jewish band leader born in Russia) came to prominence is one of the strangest of all occurrences in country music history. Only in America could a barely literate farm boy from Alabama and an immigrant swing composer from two different eras somehow find common ground and touch immortality together.
** Note: “Lovesick Blues” by Hank Williams was inducted into The Library Of Congress’ “National Recording Registry” in 2004, the fifth country record to be selected.