Song #66: Hank Williams - "Baby We're Really in Love"

Song #66: Hank Williams - "Baby We're Really in Love" (1951)

40 Greatest Hits

"My folks think I've gone crazy, and I don't feel too sure. But, yet, there's nothing wrong with me that wedding bells won't cure."

If you missed my commentary on the significance Hank Williams had on my middle school/pre-high school days from my number eighty-two entry of "Hey Good Lookin'," I'll give you a quick little rundown. During the last few months of my eighth grade year, and the entire summer between eighth grade and freshman year, Hank Williams defined by phone playlist. His heartbreak songs, his giddy, fun-loving anthems, and his overall musical tonality had me wanting more, and thanks to my grandfather's expertise and guidance on the man, I was able to obtain The Complete Hank Williams collection along with many other CDs of his work. He really kept me going in a time where there was little else besides nervousness and anxiety.

"Baby We're Really in Love," next to "Hey Good Lookin'," was one of the first songs I listened to by Hank, mesmerized by the amount of emotion and soul he put into the lyricism and the melodic flow of the song. It's the kind of song that, when you hear it, you want to feel that same kind of emotion just to have empathy with the singer-songwriter at hand. Never being in love, I hunger for the feeling just so I can play this song and have it bear more meaning than it does already.

The song concerns Hank, who is madly in love with a woman he's currently dating, and needs to have her either with him or in his arms or he'll be "nutty as a fruitcake." If a man were to sing a song with meaning and soul, any woman would be at their feat, and it possesses the kind of innocent charm of a first-dance song at a wedding. However, it's the true naturalism of Hank's vocals that captivate me the most, in an era before computers had any role in music-making whatsoever. That and the fact that this carried me through a time of crave uncertainty is precisely why this song has a place on this list.

Give "Baby We're Really in Love" a listen (FYI: this video was uploaded by me, after I was frustrated because no version of the song existed on Youtube at the time - June 2010), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4_3S5GOmiY