Hey, Good Lookin' (song)


"Hey, Good Lookin'" is a 1951 song written and recorded by Hank Williams, 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 for the Broadway musical Something for the Boys. The lyrics for the Williams version begin as a come on using double entendres related to food preparation. By the third and fourth verses, the singer is promising the object of his affection that they can become an exclusive couple.
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. 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, Don Helms, Sammy Pruett, Jack Shook, Ernie Newton or "Cedric Rainwater", also known as Howard Watts, 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, 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