The Top 20 Country Love Songs of All Time - Number 16

by Jim Poulton

Hank Williams: I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry

Not your run of the mill love song - more of a love lost song - but I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry is a tune so perfectly constructed it embedded itself in the unconscious of an entire nation - ready to play its lovelorn melody whenever we're feeling blue about love. Williams sings it in a plaintive voice, somewhere between a lament and a wail, that will awaken delicate memories of yearning and loss, and the delicious loves so powerful they could make us feel this way.

Hank Williams. Photo courtesy of Last.fm.

Here's I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry along with a nice montage of photos of Williams:

A song this good has to have been covered by other musicians, right? You bet. Here's Johnny Cash:

Here's Elvis:

And here's a link to Glen Campbell's version - the best part is its soulful, bluesy harmonica accompaniment by Steve Hardin.