| Take These Chains from My Heart | |
| Published: | Acuff-Rose Publications[1] |
| Type: | single |
| Artist: | Hank Williams With His Drifting Cowboys |
| A-Side: | Ramblin' Man |
| Studio: | Castle Studio, Nashville |
| Genre: | Country & Western, Honky-tonk, Country blues |
| Label: | MGM 11479 |
| Producer: | Fred Rose |
| Prev Title: | Kaw-Liga |
| Prev Year: | 1953 |
| Next Title: | I Won't Be Home No More |
| Next Year: | 1953 |
| Take These Chains from My Heart | |
| Type: | single |
| Artist: | Ray Charles |
| Album: | Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music, Volume Two |
| B-Side: | No Letter Today |
| Released: | March 25, 1963 |
| Recorded: | 1963 |
| Genre: | Rhythm and blues |
| Length: | 2:51 |
| Label: | MGM |
| Producer: | Sid Feller |
| Prev Title: | The Brightest Smile in Town |
| Prev Year: | 1963 |
| Next Title: | No Letter Today |
| Next Year: | 1963 |
| Take These Chains from My Heart | |
| Type: | single |
| Artist: | Lee Roy Parnell |
| Album: | On the Road |
| B-Side: | Straight Shooter |
| Released: | May 21, 1994 |
| Genre: | Country |
| Length: | 3:22 |
| Label: | Arista Nashville |
| Producer: | Scott Hendricks |
| Prev Title: | I'm Holding My Own |
| Prev Year: | 1994 |
| Next Title: | The Power of Love |
| Next Year: | 1994 |
"Take These Chains from My Heart" is a song by Hank Williams. It was written by Fred Rose and Hy Heath and was recorded at Williams' final recording session on September 23, 1952, in Nashville. The song has been widely praised; Williams' biographer Colin Escott deems it "perhaps the best song [Rose] ever presented to Hank...It was one of the very few songs that sounded somewhat similar to a Hank Williams song." Williams is backed by Tommy Jackson (fiddle), Don Helms (steel guitar), Chet Atkins (lead guitar), Jack Shook (rhythm guitar), and Floyd "Lightnin'" Chance (bass). In the wake of Williams' death on New Year's Day, 1953, the song shot to No. 1, his final chart-topping hit for MGM Records. Like "Your Cheatin' Heart," the song's theme of despair, so vividly articulated by Williams' typically impassioned singing, reinforced the image of Hank as a tortured, mythic figure.