Your Cheatin' Heart

God knows all about our cheatin’ hearts and offers help.

He was only 29 when he died. The cause was heart failure brought on by alcohol and drug abuse. In his short life and career as a musician, he managed to score 11 No. 1 hits on the Billboard charts and another 24 that made the top 10. He managed this remarkable feat without ever learning how to read music. When Nashville’s Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum was established in 1961, he was one of the first two inductees.

Despite his success, he was in many ways a broken man. But America’s country music fans didn’t much care. There was earthy truth in the simple, gritty songs of Hank Williams Sr. Somehow it made up for all his rough edges.

Among Williams’ best-known hits is a little cry-into-your-beer ditty. The first two stanzas go like this:

Your cheatin’ heart
Will make you weep.
You’ll cry and cry
And try to sleep.

But sleep won’t come
The whole night through.
Your cheatin’ heart
Will tell on you.

 

The cheatin’ heart in...