Linda Ronstadt sings Hank Williams, with some help from Emmylou Harris, back in 1974:
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZbUYS7Qos4&w=550&h=309]
Here's the Hank Williams 1951 original, plus a duet with Anita Carter in a slightly annoying video juxtaposing some anodyne modern couple, but worth it for those looks Anita is casting Hank's way. And videos of Hank Williams live are pretty rare.
Not forgetting Patsy Cline.
According to Colin Escott's 2004 book Hank Williams: The Biography, fiddler Jerry Rivers always claimed that Hank wrote the song in the touring Sedan, and when he came up with the opening line, "Today I passed you on the street," and then asked for suggestions, steel guitarist Don Helms replied, "And I smelled your rotten feet." The song was recorded at Castle Studio in Nashville, Tennessee, on March 16, 1951 and issued as MGM catalog No. 10961. Williams was backed on the session by members of his Drifting Cowboys band, including Rivers, Helms, Sammy Pruett (electric guitar), Jack Shook (rhythm guitar), Ernie Newton or "Cedric Rainwater", aka Howard Watts (bass), and either Owen Bradley or producer Fred Rose on piano. It was released as the B-side of "Howlin' at the Moon" but on the strength of its simple language and passionate singing, soared to number two on the Billboard country singles chart.
Ronstadt retired in 2011, revealing later that she had Parkinson's Disease and could "no longer sing a note." The diagnosis was subsequently changed to progressive supranuclear palsy.
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