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On This Day in 1947, Hank Williams Recorded the Single That Set the Bar for Future Success
On 4 August 1947, Hank Williams recorded "On the Banks of the Old Pontchartrain" at Castle Studio in Nashville, a single he later held up as his benchmark for failure. Released a month later with the novelty B-side "Fly Trouble," neither track charted, a stark contrast to the success he was beginning to enjoy after signing with MGM Records, and the flop became a recurring point of reference throughout his career whenever a new song succeeded.
The song came after "Move It On Over," Williams's first release for MGM, had reached No. 4 and raised expectations for his follow-up. He did not write "On the Banks of the Old Pontchartrain" himself; the lyrics originated as a poem by a disabled woman named Ramona Vincent, which he set to music. It was not his only early miss, as "I Saw the Light" and "My Sweet Love Ain't Around" also failed to chart, but after "Lovesick Blues" topped the charts in 1949, nearly all of his subsequent singles reached the top 10 for the remainder of his short life.
In short
- Hank Williams recorded "On the Banks of the Old Pontchartrain" on 4 August 1947
- Neither the single nor its B-side "Fly Trouble" charted
- He later cited it as his standard for a flop song
Explained simply
In the late 1940s, country singer Hank Williams was beginning to find a national audience through MGM Records. His first MGM release, “Move It On Over”, reached No. 4, raising expectations for what he would record next.
Williams recorded songs written by others as well as his own. “On the Banks of the Old Pontchartrain” was based on a poem by Ramona Vincent, whose words he set to music; it was released with the comic song “Fly Trouble” on the other side of the record.
A song’s chart performance was one measure of its commercial success, and early releases did not all find an audience. After “Lovesick Blues” reached No. 1 in 1949, Williams’s singles were usually much more successful, making the earlier misses a point of comparison in accounts of his career.