| They'll Never Take Her Love from Me | |
| Published: | Acuff-Rose Publications, Inc.[1] |
| Type: | single |
| Artist: | Hank Williams With His Drifting Cowboys |
| A-Side: | Why Should We Try Anymore |
| Released: | August 1950 |
| Recorded: | June 14, 1950[2] |
| Studio: | Castle Studio, Nashville |
| Genre: | Country |
| Label: | MGM 10760 |
| Producer: | Fred Rose |
| Prev Title: | Why Don't You Love Me |
| Prev Year: | 1950 |
| Next Title: | Moanin' the Blues |
| Next Year: | 1950 |
"They'll Never Take Her Love from Me" is a country song popularized by Hank Williams in 1950. In 1961, Johnny Horton also had a hit with the song, and many others have covered it.[3]
The song was first recorded by singer-songwriter Leon Payne in 1948, but it wasn't released until 1949 on the Bullet label.
Leon Payne wrote hundreds of country songs in a prolific career that lasted from 1941 until his death in 1969. He is perhaps best known for his hits "I Love You Because", "You've Still Got a Place in My Heart," and for the two songs Williams recorded: "Lost Highway" and "They'll Never Take Her Love from Me."
Williams cut the song on June 14, 1950, at Castle Studio in Nashville, with Fred Rose producing and backing from Sammy Pruett (lead guitar), Jack Shook or Rusty Gabbard (rhythm guitar), Don Helms (steel guitar), Jerry Rivers (fiddle), and Ernie Newton (bass). The song was released as the flipside to Williams' own "Why Should We Try Anymore," but Payne's song outperformed the A-side, peaking at number 5, while "Why Should We Try Anymore" rose to number 9. As Williams biographer Colin Escott observes, "The message was clear: the public wanted brisk, up-temp juke joint songs. History might decide that Hank Williams was the finest writer and singer of 'heart' songs in all country music, but that wasn't what radio and jukebox audiences wanted in 1950."[4]
Kentucky historian W. Lynn Nickell asserted in 2012 that Paul Gilley was responsible for the lyrics to "They'll Never Take Her Love from Me," as well as several other country song hits. Gilley supposedly gave the handwritten lyric sheet to a neighbor girl, telling her the song would soon be playing on the radio and that it was proof that he had written it.[5]