The Philosophy of Modern Song: Your Cheating Heart

Posted on February 13, 2026 by Tony Attwood

 

By Tony Attwood

This series takes a look at the songs Bob Dylan wrote about in his work “The Philosophy of Modern Song,” the book that followed his honorary doctorate.  Thus, this isn’t a review of the book as such, since the book is a review in itself, but rather it has become a review of the songs within the book, and includes one or more recordings of each song in case there are any in Bob’s book which you have never heard.

Details of other songs from Dylan’s book “The Philosophy” which have been covered within Untold Dylan are given at the end of this article.  Here, I take a look at and listen to “Your cheating heart” written and recorded by Hank Williams, as well as a Williams song that Bob himself performed.

This song was both written and performed by Hank Williams, and we can tell at once that the construction of the song is an absolutely standard approach for songs of the 1950s, with a very memorable melody, sung above a simple three-chord accompaniment.   70 years or so later it still works beautifully, even though we know that the composer could not read musical notation.  It is a song that feels right in every way, with its most simple Verse, Middle 8, and verse structure.   One can only wonder how much further Hank Williams could have taken his work as a songwriter if only he had lived.

In this composition, the second section (“When tears come”) acts as a bridge between the two verses (which begin with the song’s title) and provides a variation within the music by modulating to the dominant key and then coming back with the lyrics “You’ll toss around and call my name”.

The accompaniment is simply a guitar, and a careful listen shows that the song actually speeds up as it is performed, which is not supposed to happen, but which does reflect the situation that the singer/composer was now in.   Here are the lyrics

Your cheatin' heart will make you weep
You'll cry and cry and try to sleep
But sleep won't come the whole night through
Your cheatin' heart will tell on you

When tears come down like falling rain
You'll toss around and call my name
You'll walk the floor the way I do
Your cheatin' heart will tell on you

Your cheatin' heart will pine someday
And crave the love you threw away
The time will come when you'll be blue
Your cheatin' heart will tell on you

When tears come down like falling rain
You'll toss around and call my name
You'll walk the floor the way I do
Your cheatin' heart will tell on you

The song was also a hit for Joni James with Lew Douglas

This song represents the essence of popular ballads of the early 1950s – the antithesis of “Rock Around the Clock” which was written and released one year before “Your Cheatin’ Heart”.    Indeed, the two songs represent two of the three fundamental themes of popular music that have lasted ever since: dance (Rock around the clock), lost love (Your cheating heart) and the third, obviously and most popular of all, love.

This song does indeed symbolise one of the three dominant song forms of the era, in which, because of the technical restrictions imposed by the use of 78rpm records, songs were limited to, at most, three minutes, but generally, as with this song, two and a half minutes.   Indeed, although some 78rpm recordings were released at the three-minute mark and beyond, they suffered from a reduction in the volume of the recording being lower than the norm.

Hank Williams’ fame and legacy mean that there can be very few people who kindly dip into these notes who have not heard of him.   And yet not everyone is fully aware that Hank Williams died in 1953, aged just 29, his early death directly associated with his alcoholism.   And yet he recorded 55 tracks that were released as singles that managed to get into the Billboard top ten (five of which were released posthumously – the start of a trend that seemed to become normalised over the early years of popular music).

However, his passing did not in any way affect the popularity of his compositions as subsequently his songs have been covered by everyone from Bob Dylan to the Rolling Stones.

Many artists have covered his songs and many more have been influenced by his writing, ranging from Chuck Berry to Elvis, Johnny Cash to the Rolling Stones.   He was eventually awarded a Pulitzer Prize Special Citation for his “craftsmanship as a songwriter who expressed universal feelings with poignant simplicity and played a pivotal role in transforming country music into a major musical and cultural force in American life.”

The song “Your cheatin heart” was recorded on 23 September 1952 in Hank Williams last ever recording session.  He was already drinking far beyond reasonable limits but failed to get proper medical support and help.   He died on New Year’s Day, 1953 but as we can see the influence of his songwriting continues to this day.  Here is a recording from the last decade

Previously in this series

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