"I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive" is a song written by Fred Rose and American country music singer-songwriter Hank Williams, released by Williams in 1952. The last single to be released during Williams' lifetime, it reached #1 on the Billboard Country Singles chart posthumously in January 1953. Co-writer Fred Rose died a year after the song's release. Meant to be a humorous song, as evidenced by its ironic title and chorus, the song took on additional poignancy following Williams' mysterious death. In fact, the urban legend that the song was #1 at the time of his demise is not far from the truth, as he did in fact die in the early hours of January 1953.
The song has been covered by artists such as The Delta Rhythm Boys, Jimmy Dale Gilmore, Asleep at the Wheel, Jerry Lee Lewis, Hank Williams Jr., Hank Williams III, and The Little Willies.
In 1999 the song was used as the theme for the BBC Radio 4 comedy Married. In 2008 Hank Williams' version of the song has been used as the theme for the HBO animated Comedy "The Life & Times of Tim". Singer-songwriter and author Steve Earle released his first novel on May 12, 2011, which takes its title from the song and tells the story of a doctor haunted by the ghost of Hank Williams. Earle also released an album titled I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive on April 26, 2011, although only the iTunes album download includes a cover of the song. Earle often covers the song in live performances.
Famous quotes containing the words world and/or alive:
“What staggers me is not the persistence of illusion, but the persistence of the world in the face of illusion.”
—A. G. Mojtabai (b. 1937)
“I knew very well that this hope was chimerical. I was like a pauper who mingles fewer tears with his dry bread if he tells himself that at any moment a stranger will bequeath to him his fortune. We must all, in order to make reality more tolerable, keep alive in us a few little follies.”
—Marcel Proust (1871–1922)