"Hey Good Lookin'" Hank Williams 1951 Leon Russell 1973

When rock star Leon Russell, who stole the show at George Harrison's concert For Bangla Desh in August 1971, moved back to Tulsa form Hollywood in 1972, he decided to make an album of country songs. He went to Bradley's Barn in Mt. Juliet, Tennessee at the end of February 1973 and with the help of Nashville's best studio players, and his friends JJ Cale and Carl Radle, recorded covers of over thirty classic country hits. He put about a dozen of them on an album titled Hank Wilson's Back! using the name Hank Wilson that he derived from two of his favorite country singers... Hank Williams and Hank Thompson. The album cover made no mention of Leon Russell and had a photo of Leon wearing a belt with "HANK" on it, taken showing his back (Hank Wilson's back) as he plays for a crowd of dancers. Leon's cover of Hank Williams' melancholic "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" is arguably one of the best done. That one made it on the album, as did his cover of Williams' "Jambalaya (On The Bayou)."
When DCC Compact classics issued digital cds of Leon's catalog, excellently remastered by Steve Hoffman, a few bonus tracks were added to Hank Wilson's Back! Among them was Leon's rendition of Hank's Number One hit from 1951, "Hey Good Lookin'." Back then, “singles” were thick, brittle 10” records that played at 78 rpm. The 7” 45 rpm singles arrived in the mid-50s.
Here is Hank Williams' March 1961 version followed by Leon Russell's... I mean Hank Wilson's version, done twenty-two years later.

[@EnchantedSeashells]

I don't there there's a single song that wasn't made better by Leon. I'd choose his version every day.

[@GLD-hopeful]

Nice that you allow us to hear them both but I can't listen to either all the way through. Not a fan of country, then or now. 😊