08/02/2026
Hank Cochran was born on August 2, 1935 in Isola, Mississippi. He was a country music singer and songwriter. Starting during the 1960s, Cochran was a prolific songwriter in the genre, including major hits by Patsy Cline, Ray Price, Eddy Arnold, and others. Cochran was also a recording artist between 1962 and 1980, scoring seven times on the Billboard country music charts, with his greatest solo success being the No. 20 "Sally Was a Good Old Girl."
Hank Cochran was born during the Great Depression. By the time he turned three, Cochran already had pneumonia, whooping cough, measles, and mumps. The doctor feared he wouldn't survive to adulthood. His parents divorced when he was nine years old. He then moved with his father to Memphis, Tennessee, and was placed in an orphanage. After running away twice, He then was sent to live with his grandparents, in Greenville. His uncle Otis Cochran taught him to play the guitar as the pair hitchhiked from Mississippi to southeastern New Mexico to work in the oilfields. After returning to Mississippi as a teenager, Cochran went to California and picked olives. While there, he formed The Cochran Brothers, a duo with unrelated Eddie Cochran.
In 1960 at the age of 24, he hitchhiked for Hollywood, but ended up going to Nashville, and teamed with Harlan Howard to write the song "I Fall to Pieces". It became a major success for Patsy Cline, reaching No. 1 on the Billboard country music charts and No. 12 on the Billboard Hot 100 (chart for all music categories). Cline also recorded Cochran's "She's Got You" (it was another major hit, No. 1 on the country charts and No. 14 on the Hot 100), and "Why Can't He Be You".
In 1960, during a date at a movie theater, the film inspired him to compose a new song. He left the theater quickly, and by the time he got home fifteen minutes later, composed "Make the World Go Away." Ray Price recorded the song, and it scored No. 2 on the Billboard country charts in 1963. The next year Eddy Arnold made the song his signature hit, scoring No. 1 on the country music charts, then in 1965 No. 6 on the overall Billboard Hot 100 charts. Arnold also recorded the song "I Want to Go with You".
Cochran wrote several successful songs sung by Burl Ives ("A Little Bitty Tear", "Funny Way of Laughin'", "The Same Old Hurt"). He also wrote songs for George Strait ("The Chair" and "Ocean Front Property"), Keith Whitley ("Miami, My Amy"), Merle Haggard ("It's Not Love (But It's Not Bad)"), "Don't You Ever Get Tired (of Hurting Me)", a No. 1 scoring record for Ronnie Milsap, and Mickey Gilley ("That's All That Matters").
While working at publishing company Pamper Music, some evenings, he performed in a Nashville tavern named Tootsie's Orchid Lounge. While there, he noticed an amazing new talent. He encouraged management to contract the young songwriter, Willie Nelson, giving Nelson a raise owed to him at the time.
Two of his fondest memories were working with Natalie Cole (among other artists) on a 2003 tribute album to Patsy Cline (Remembering Patsy Cline), because of his love for her father Nat King Cole, and his collaboration with Vern Gosdin for the 1988 album Chiseled in Stone.
Cochran passed away in July 2010 at the age of 74. In 2014, he was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.
Photo courtesy of Music Row
