# Hank Williams — I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry

Hank Williams’s I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry (1949) appears on 2 of our lists — Country and Sung to Someone, highest at No. 1 in Country. Every verdict, in full.

- **Released:** 1949
- **Label:** MGM
- **On:** Country and Sung to Someone
- **Updated:** 2026-08-30
- **Artist:** [Hank Williams](https://waxonia.com/artist/hank-williams/)
- **Canonical page:** https://waxonia.com/track/hank-williams--im-so-lonesome-i-could-cry/

## What 2 lists say

### No. 1 in [Country](https://waxonia.com/genre/country/)

A whippoorwill, a falling star and a man who cannot say the thing directly. The most imitated lyric in American songwriting, and nobody has bettered it.

### Picked by [Sung to Someone](https://waxonia.com/theme/sung-to-someone/)

It reads as a nature poem — a whippoorwill, a falling star — right up to "did you ever see a robin weep". Every image in it is being handed to somebody. He is not describing loneliness; he is telling one person what it is doing to him.

## Analysis

5 sections, the first drop at 0:05, 3% of the way in.

- **Tempo:** 112.3 BPM — holds throughout
- **Dynamic range:** 6.2 dB — moderate range, typical of a modern master
- **Length:** 3:01

- `0:00` A · **intro** (bar -2), sung — opens the record below its own average energy — playing: vocals, other
- `0:58` B · **breakdown** (bar 26), instrumental — energy falling away mid-record, percussion thinning — playing: other
- `1:29` A · **peak** (bar 40), sung — sits at the top of this record's range — playing: vocals, other
- `1:55` C · **steady** (bar 52), instrumental — holding a level — the groove, neither rising nor falling — playing: other
- `2:21` A · **outro** (bar 64), sung — the closing fall — playing: vocals

**Drop** at 0:05 (bar 1). A drop is a moment, not a stretch.

**What is playing.** Separated into parts by a source-separation model, so each lane is the instrument it names.

- **drums:** the drum kit, separated from the mix
- **bass:** the bass part, separated from the mix
- **vocals:** the voice, separated from the mix
- **other:** everything else — synths, guitars, keys, strings

Measured from the YouTube master on 2026-08-29. Section labels describe how the energy
moves, not musical form. Anything we were not confident enough to state is omitted
rather than hedged.

## Listen

[Search Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/search/Hank%20Williams%20I'm%20So%20Lonesome%20I%20Could%20Cry) · [YouTube Music](https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=4WXYjm74WFI)

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