On July 20, 1951, Tony Bennett's version of "Cold, Cold Heart" reached the Billboard magazine charts

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Cold, Cold Heart

Single by Hank Williams With His Drifting Cowboys
A-side: "Dear John"
Written: 1950
Published: February 16, 1951 Acuff-Rose Publications
Released: February 2, 1951
Recorded: December 21, 1950

"Cold, Cold Heart" is a country music and pop song written and first recorded by Hank Williams. This blues ballad is both a classic of honky-tonk and an entry in the Great American Songbook.

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Hank Williams

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Tony Bennett version

Single by Tony Bennett
B-side: "While We're Young"
Released: July 2, 1951
Recorded: May 31, 1951
Studio: Columbia 30th Street Studio, New York City
Genre: Pop
Length: 2:38
Label: Columbia
Songwriter(s): Hank Williams
Producer(s): Percy Faith

That same year, it was recorded in a pop version by Tony Bennett with a light orchestral arrangement from Percy Faith. This recording was released by Columbia Records as catalog number 39449. It first reached the Billboard magazine charts on July 20, 1951, and lasted 27 weeks on the chart, peaking at number 1.

The popularity of Bennett's version has been credited with helping to expose both Williams and country music to a wider national audience. Allmusic writer Bill Janovitz discusses this unlikely combination:

That a young Italian singing waiter from Queens could find common ground with a country singer from Alabama's backwoods is testament both to Williams' skills as a writer and to Bennett's imagination and artist's ear.

Williams subsequently telephoned Bennett to say, "Tony, why did you ruin my song?" But that was a prank – in fact, Williams liked Bennett's version and played it on jukeboxes whenever he could. In his autobiography The Good Life, Bennett described playing "Cold, Cold Heart" at the Grand Ole Opry later in the 1950s. He had brought his usual arrangement charts to give to the house musicians who would be backing him, but their instrumentation was different and they declined the charts. "You sing and we'll follow you," they said, and Bennett says they did so beautifully, once again recreating an unlikely artistic merger.

The story of the Williams–Bennett telephone conversation is often related with mirth by Bennett in interviews and on stage; he still performs the song in concert. In 1997, the first installment of A&E's Live By Request featuring Bennett (who was also the show's creator), special guest Clint Black performed the song, after which Bennett recounted it. Bennett re-recorded the song as a duet with Tim McGraw for the 2006 album Duets: An American Classic. A Google Doodle featured Bennett's recording of the song on its Valentine's Day doodle in February 2012.

In 2012, Bennett recorded once again "Cold, Cold Heart" in a duet with Argentinian singer-songwriter Vicentico for Viva Duets, a studio album of Bennett in collaboration with Latin American music stars, released in October 2012.

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No one can beat Hank Williams on this. This video showed up randomly this monring on YouTube. Or maybe it wasn't random.

Rare Hank Williams Video 1952 - Cold Cold Heart

ricgrass
13.5K subscribers

6,437,790 views Mar 19, 2012

I wish I could find a clip of this that goes on for longer than 46 seconds. Please, someone, find it.

Ray Price, Ernest Tubb, Tony Bennett -- Tony singing Cold Cold Heart

jeriw
13K subscribers

It was Mitch Miller who encouraged Tony Bennett to perform the song.

Tony Bennett - Cold Cold Heart

Johnnie Nicholson
2.52K subscribers

Sat Jul 22, 2023: On July 20, 1951, Tony Bennett's version of "Cold, Cold Heart" reached the Billboard magazine charts

[rsdsharp]

1. Somehow it's not the same song without the weepy steel guitars.