B-side "Rootie Tootie" Format 10" single (MGM 10124) Length 2:42 | Released January 1948 Genre Country | |
Recorded November 7, 1947, Castle Studio, Nashville | ||
"My Sweet Love Ain't Around" is a song written and performed by Hank Williams. it was his third single on MGM Records released in January 1948.
Contents
Background
"My Sweet Love Ain't Around" was recorded at Castle Studio in Nashville with Fred Rose producing and backing from Jerry Byrd (steel guitar), Robert "Chubby" Wise (fiddle), Zeke Turner (lead guitar), probably Louis Innis (bass) and either Owen Bradley or Rose on piano. After the underwhelming performance of "On the Banks of the Old Ponchartrain," "My Sweet Love Ain't Around" returned to the harder sound that had made "Move It On Over" a #4 hit the year before. With Jerry Byrd's steel guitar mimicking a train whistle and William's lazy, blues-drenched vocal, the song may have been too raw for country audiences at the time, which may explain why the single failed to chart. In light of his later monumental chart success, many people forget that Williams had recorded seven singles by January 1948, of which six were flops. As biographer Colin Escott notes, "At this point, Hank was no more than a sidebar to Fred Rose's activities and was far from MGM's best-selling artist." By October 1947, MGM had snagged the enormously popular Bob Wills from Columbia and enjoyed its first big hit with "Life Gits Tee-Jus, Don't It" by singer Carson Robison. Williams' career would explode with the release of "Lovesick Blues" in January 1949.