LEGENDARY
HEALTH & HAPPINESS SHOW
WITH
PROGRAM’S FIRST-EVER VINYL RELEASE
Three-album vinyl or 2-CD set contains the complete recordings of William’s eight 1949
radio shows, which include hits and rarities
all newly restored and mastered.
Street
date June 14, 2019.
Pre-grat
“Lost Highway” (Health & Happiness Show Four, October 1949) available now
as stream and with pre-order.
Track
premiered by Rolling Stone Country: http://bit.ly/2ZWZ3Nj
LOS
ANGELES, Calif. – Hank Williams
began 1949 with his career at a crossroads. Although he was headlining the
Louisiana Hayride radio showand achieved a few hits, big-time success had
eluded him and questions remained on whether he had what it took to be a star.
By the year’s end, however, Williams held a handful of Top Five hits, had a
spectacular Grand Ole Opry debut,
and staked his claim as a singular musical talent. Key to his rapid rise to
success in 1949 was his popular, although short-lived, radio program, The
Health & Happiness Show.
On
June 14, 2019, BMG will release The Complete Health & Happiness Shows
for the first time on vinyl.
The 49-track, three-LP set or two-CD contains the eight Health & Happiness episodes in their entirety. Included are performances of his breakout 1949 hits “Lovesick Blues,” “Wedding Blues,” “Mind Your Own Business,” and “You're Gonna Change (Or I'm Gonna Leave),” along with such other iconic Williams tunes as “I Saw the Light,” “I'm a Long Gone Daddy,” and “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry.” (The last song actually came out after the program was recorded in the fall of 1949 but before the show was broadcast in the spring of 1950.)
The 49-track, three-LP set or two-CD contains the eight Health & Happiness episodes in their entirety. Included are performances of his breakout 1949 hits “Lovesick Blues,” “Wedding Blues,” “Mind Your Own Business,” and “You're Gonna Change (Or I'm Gonna Leave),” along with such other iconic Williams tunes as “I Saw the Light,” “I'm a Long Gone Daddy,” and “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry.” (The last song actually came out after the program was recorded in the fall of 1949 but before the show was broadcast in the spring of 1950.)
The
set was produced by Cheryl Pawelski,
Colin Escott and Michael Graves have produced, written notes and mastered the
new set respectively, alongside the rest of the team that was responsible for
the Best Historical Album for 2014, The
Garden Spot Programs, 1950.
In
addition to the amazing performances, this archival collection contains the
earliest recorded evidence of the Nashville-era incarnation of Williams’
backing band, the Drifting Cowboys.
Sessions for the Health & Happiness Show were done at Nashville’s WSM studios on two successive Sundays
in October 1949. They were recorded directly to acetate, which were then
duplicated onto 16-inch vinyl discs for distribution to radio stations. For The
Complete Health & Happiness Shows, this material has been freshly
transferred, restored and mastered from these original 16" transcription
discs.
As
typical of transcription radio programs, The Health & Happiness Show
follows a basic format. Each 12-minute episode began a rendition of “Happy
Rovin’ Cowboy” and the well-known WSM DJ Grant Turner introducing Williams, who
would play an original tune. After a break for local stations to do an ad,
Williams would do a second song, followed by the second commercial break. The
program’s closing section included a solo turn by Drifting Cowboy fiddler Jerry
Rivers, Williams performing a sacred song, and Rivers playing “Sally
Goodin’” as the outro.
Noteworthy
among the sacred (or “heart”) songs is the only known recording of Williams
doing “The Tramp on the Street,” which he had included several years earlier in
a self-published songbook. Other rarities in this collection are the
performances by Williams’ wife Audrey,
either solo or dueting with Hank (as on “I Want to Live and Love”). Audrey,
however, only appears on the first four programs, and, as the eminent Hank
Williams expert Colin Escott writes
in his liner notes, “there’s really nothing redeeming about Audrey’s singing:
you either hate it or you loathe it.”
Escott’s
extensive and informative liner notes not only offer illuminating insights on
Williams’ music and Health & Happiness Show performances, but he also provides
a quite fascinating story about the program itself. The show’s sponsor was
Hadocol, an elixir created by a Louisiana state senator named Dylan LeBlanc who aggressively touted
for its curative power. While the tonic had some vitamins and minerals, its
main ingredient was alcohol. To increase his product’s popularity, LeBlanc
staged massive publicity campaigns. These stunts included the Hadocol Caravan, a traveling roadshow
whose wildly eccentric bills included Bob
Hope, Milton Berle, Jimmy Durante, and Hank Williams. The
Hadacol craze imploded spectacularly in 1951 due to huge debts and federal
investigations.
Thankfully
one positive byproduct of Hadacol PR blitz was The Health & Happiness Show.
As Escott states in his liner notes, “the audio quality of his transcriptions
equaled, if not surpassed, his commercial recordings.” Williams would go on to
do the transcription radio show The Garden Spot in 1950 for sponsor
Naughton Farms (these were issued by Omnivore
Recordings in 2014), and the Mother’s Best show for WSM in 1951.
The
Hadacol scandal did little to damage Hank Williams’ career. Between 1950-52, he
continually topped the charts with such now-iconic tunes as “Why Don’t You Love
Me,” “Cold, Cold Heart,” “Jambalaya (On the Bayou),” and “I'll Never Get Out of
This World Alive.” Released in November 1952, “World Alive,” proved to be
all-too prophetic as he passed away on New Year’s Day 1953 from heart failure
brought on by alcohol and drugs. He was just 29 years old. The Health &
Happiness Show sessions capture Williams at a unique moment of time, when he
was a rising star still hungry for success and performing at the top of his
game.
THE COMPLETE HEALTH
& HAPPINESS SHOWS TRACKLIST:
RECORD ONE: SIDE ONE
Oct
1949 – Health & Happiness Show 1
Happy
Rovin’ Cowboy (Theme)
Wedding
Bells
Lovesick
Blues
Old
Joe Clark (featuring Jerry Rivers)
Where
The Soul Of Man Never Dies (featuring Audrey Williams)
Sally
Goodin’ (featuring Jerry Rivers)
Oct
1949 – Health & Happiness Show 2
Happy
Rovin’ Cowboy (Theme)
You’re
Gonna Change (Or I’m Gonna Leave)
RECORD ONE: SIDE TWO
(There’s
A Bluebird) On Your Windowsill (featuring Audrey Williams)
A
Tramp On The Street
Sally
Goodin’ (featuring Jerry Rivers)
Oct
1949 – Health & Happiness Show 3
Happy
Rovin’ Cowboy (Theme)
I’m
A Long Gone Daddy
I’m
Telling You (featuring Audrey Williams)
Bill
Cheatham (featuring Jerry Rivers)
RECORD TWO: SIDE ONE
When
God Comes And Gathers His Jewels
Sally
Goodin – Jerry Rivers
Oct
1949 – Health & Happiness Show 4
Happy
Rovin’ Cowboy (Theme)
Lost
Highway
I
Want To Live And Love (featuring Audrey Williams)
Bile
Them Cabbage Down (featuring Jerry Rivers)
I’ll
Have A New Body (I’ll Have A New Life)
RECORD TWO: SIDE TWO
Fingers
On Fire (featuring Bob McNett)
Sally
Goodin’ (featuring Jerry Rivers)
Oct
1949 – Health & Happiness Show 5
Happy
Rovin’ Cowboy (Theme)
A
Mansion On The Hill
There’ll
Be No Teardrops Tonight
Wagner
(featuring Jerry Rivers)
The
Prodigal Son
Sally
Goodin’ (featuring Jerry Rivers)
RECORD THREE: SIDE ONE
Oct
1949 – Health & Happiness Show 6
Happy
Rovin’ Cowboy (Theme)
Pan
American
Lovesick
Blues
Arkansas
Traveler (featuring Jerry Rivers)
I
Saw The Light
Sally
Goodin’ (featuring Jerry Rivers)
Oct
1949 – Health & Happiness Show 7
Happy
Rovin’ Cowboy (Theme)
Mind
Your Own Business
RECORD THREE: SIDE TWO
Wedding
Bells
Cotton
Eyed Joe (featuring Jerry Rivers)
I’ve
Just Told Mama Goodbye
Sally
Goodin’ (featuring Jerry Rivers)
Oct
1949 – Health & Happiness Show 8
Happy
Rovin’ Cowboy (Theme)
I
Can’t Get You Off My Mind
I’m
So Lonesome I Could Cry
Fisherman’s
Hornpipe (featuring Jerry Rivers)
Thy
Burdens Are Greater Than Mine
Sally
Goodin’ (featuring Jerry Rivers)
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.