There'll Be No Teardrops Tonight is a song written by Hank Williams and released on MGM Records as the B-side to "Mind Your Own Business" in July 1949.

Background

According to Colin Escott's 2004 memoir Hank Williams: The Biography, country music disc jockey Nelson King always insisted that he had written "There'll Be No Teardrops Tonight" with Williams, and was surreptitiously credited with a half-share of the song.[2] However, the extent of King's contribution is debatable; songwriter Tillman Franks, who Escott writes "had more or less invented payola in the country record business," later recalled a fishing trip he took with Williams and country singer Webb Pierce:

I'd given Nelson King half of "Three Ways of Knowing" and Hank said, "Franks, you and Pierce have done fucked up business giving these deejays songs." I said, "Hank, I didn't start it. Nelson told me you'd given him half of 'There'll Be No Teardrops Tonight.'" Hank said, "I didn't mean to, I was drunk.'"[2]

Williams' session band was composed of Clyde Baum (mandolin), Zeke Turner (electric guitar), Jerry Byrd (steel guitar), Louis Innis (rhythm guitar), Tommy Jackson (fiddle) and Willie Thawl (bass).[3] The session is notable for being held at a Cincinnati recording studio rather than Castle Studio in Nashville, where Hank usually recorded.

Cover versions

• Al Martino recorded the song for Capitol in 1954.
• Tony Bennett recorded the song in 1954.
• Anita Carter released a version of the song in 1954.
• Joni James recorded the song in 1957.
• George Jones cut a version for his 1960 Mercury album George Jones Salutes Hank Williams.
• Adam Wade charted with the song in 1962.
• The song appears on Hank Williams, Jr.'s 1964 LP Sings the Songs of Hank Williams.
• Tennessee Ernie Ford included it on his 1964 release Country Hits...Feelin' Blue.
• Willie Nelson recorded the song for Liberty in the early 1960s.
• Williams' idol Roy Acuff released a version of the song in 1966.
• Roy Orbison included it on his album Hank Williams the Roy Orbison Way in 1970.
• Ray Price recorded the song for his 1976 LP Hank 'N' Me.

References