"Move It On Over" | ||||
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Single by Hank Williams | ||||
B-side | "(Last Night) I Heard You Crying in Your Sleep" | |||
Released | June 1947 | |||
Format | 10" single (MGM 10033) | |||
Recorded | April 21, 1947, Castle Studio, Nashville | |||
Genre | Country, blues, rock and roll | |||
Length | 2:49 | |||
Label | MGM | |||
Writer(s) | Hank Williams | |||
Producer(s) | Fred Rose | |||
Hank Williams singles chronology | ||||
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"Move It On Over" is a 12-bar blues song written and recorded by the American country music singer-songwriter Hank Williams in 1947. The song was Williams' first major country hit, reaching #4 on the Billboard Country Singles chart. The song is considered one of the earliest examples of rock and roll music.
Many others have recorded and performed the song subsequently, notably hit versions by George Thorogood in the 1980s and Travis Tritt in the '90s.
The song's melody and composition very closely resemble that of two other songs: "Diddie Wa Diddie", written and recorded by Blind Blake in 1929 and "Rock Around the Clock," released seven years later by Bill Haley and his Comets, which would go on to become the first hit rock and roll single. "Move It On Over" was recorded on April 21, 1947 at Castle Studio in Nashville, Hank's first session for MGM and the same session that produced "I Saw the Light," "(Last Night) I Heard You Crying in Your Sleep," and "Six More Miles to the Graveyard." Nashville had no session men during this period, so producer Fred Rose hired Red Foley's backing band, one of the sharpest around, to back Williams. As biographer Colin Escott observes, Rose probably felt the instrumental break needed a touch of class to smooth out Williams' hillbilly edges, and the band, especially guitarist Zeke Turner, was likely too fancy for the singer's taste.