In the Jailhouse Now

“I’m Moving On” is a 1950 country standard written by Hank Snow. It is Snow’s most recorded song. According to Snow, he proposed the song for his first session for RCA Records in 1949, but recording director Stephen H. Sholes turned it down. “Later on, in the spring of 1950, in Nashville, Mr. Sholes had not remembered the song, so I recorded it,” Snow recalled. the song has four bars of verse followed by eight bars of chorus with the final lines referring back to the verse. The single reached number one on the Billboard country singles chart and stayed there for 21 weeks, tying a record for the most weeks atop the chart. It was the first of seven number-one Billboard country hits Snow scored throughout his career on that chart. The song’s success led to Snow joining the Grand Ole Opry cast in 1950. “I’m Moving On” is one of three songs in the history of the Billboard country charts to spend 21 weeks at number one, the others being 1947’s “I’ll Hold You in My Heart (Till I Can Hold You in My Arms)” by Eddy Arnold and 1955’s “In the Jailhouse Now” by Webb Pierce. It spent 44 weeks in Billboard’s top 10. Until August 2013, the three songs jointly held the record for most weeks at the top position on the country chart, until being surpassed by “Cruise” by Florida Georgia Line, which logged its 22nd week atop the chart on August 10, 2013. According to music writer John Morthland, “The chugging beat establishes that this is a train song, and the fiddle and steel push harder than is usual on Nashville records from this era … There’s real anger and determination in Snow’s voice, which sometimes sounds too smooth for this type of song