Hank Cochran - The legend

On any given day, in one of Nashville's myriad recording studios, there's likely to be an artist recording a song written by the legendary Hank Cochran. And that's been the case for the past six decades, as hundreds have mined the massive Hank Cochran catalog for award-winning gems such as "I Fall to Pieces," "She's Got You," "Make the World Go Away," "A Little Bitty Tear," "The Chair," "Don't Touch Me," and "Don't You Ever Get Tired of Hurtin' Me."  Hank’s songs have received over 25 million spins on the radio over the years.

In 1974, Hank Cochran was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Association's International Hall of Fame. He's the only writer ever to receive a unanimous vote.

An alphabetical listing of just a few of the artists who've recorded Hank Cochran's tunes reads like a musician's encyclopedia: Lynn Anderson, Eddy Arnold, Chet Atkins, Junior Brown, Jimmy Buffett, Tracy Byrd, Johnny Cash, Mark Chesnutt, Natalie Cole, Elvis Costello, Bing Crosby, Garbage, Don Gibson, Vern Gosdin, Ty Herndon, Merle Haggard, Emmylou Harris, Joe Henry, Harry James, Waylon Jennings, Jamey Johnson, Tom Jones, Loretta Lynn, Dean Martin, Reba McEntire, Willie Nelson, Wayne Newton, Buck Owens, Brad Paisley, Elvis Presley, Ray Price, Lou Rawls, LeAnn Rimes, Linda Ronstadt, Nancy Sinatra, George Strait, Carla Thomas, Ernest Tubb, and Lee Ann Womack just to name a few.

But Hank, born Garland Perry Cochran, in Isola, Mississippi on August 2nd, 1935 was more than simply a songwriter. He toured and appeared on TV in the 1950‘s with Rock legend Eddie Cochran as part of the duo “The Cochran Brothers. He discovered and got Willie Nelson his first writing job; giving up a raise due him so Willie could be hired. He produced Merle Haggard’s seminal country album “Ramblin’ Fever”. And as a song-plugger, with the promise that he would find him a hit, convinced Billy Walker to give up the song and got Patsy Cline her biggest hit, “Crazy”. Then he found, tweaked and gave Billy “Charlie’s Shoes” his biggest hit ever. But as was his nature, Hank took no credit for his rewrite.

Not bad for a man whose resume includes an orphanage in Memphis, Tennessee and a stint as a roustabout in the oil fields of New Mexico at the age of 12. And ends up in Nashville where he becomes one of music’s most prolific and successful songwriters. Hank’s is truly a rags-to-riches story. It is the American dream. This isn’t only Nashville or country music history, this is American history captured in the moment and saved for future generations in the film “Hank Cochran: Livin’ for a Song”