ABSTRACT
The two songs of Arthur’s best known to country music fans are “If Teardrops Were Pennies” (a giant hit for Carl Smith in 1951) and “Wedding Bells” (a 1949 Number Two best-seller for Hank Williams); for each of these, Arthur had to watch the royalty checks go to someone elseand it was all legal. Hank Williams, to give him credit, recognized the kind of songwriter Arthur was, and for a time hired him to work in his tour band and to do some booking. The problem was both men had serious drinking problems, and neither was more dependable than the other; finally Hank’s wife fired Arthur and his band. Arthur kept pitching songs to Hank, and one of them-“The Man in the Moon Cried Last Night”— Hank had agreed to record at his first session in 1953. Of course, it was a session Hank never made. Arthur quipped to one of his friends, “I finally got the SOB to record one of my songs, and then he goes and dies.”
