How's My Ex Treating You

"How's My Ex Treating You" is a song written by Vic McAlpin and originally recorded by Jerry Lee Lewis, who released it as a single, with "Sweet Little Sixteen" on the other side, in 1962 on Sun Records.

"How's My Ex Treating You"
Single by Jerry Lee Lewis
A-side"How's My Ex Treating You"
"Sweet Little Sixteen"[2]
ReleasedJuly 21, 1962 (1962-07-21)[1]
GenreCountry
Length2:35
LabelSun
Songwriter(s)Vic McAlpin
Producer(s)Jerry Kennedy
Jerry Lee Lewis singles chronology
"I've Been Twistin'" / "Ramblin' Rose"
(1962)
"How's My Ex Treating You" / "Sweet Little Sixteen"
(1962)
"Good Golly Miss Molly" / "I Can't Trust Me (in Your Arms Anymore)"
(1962)
Audio
"How's My Ex Treating You" on YouTube

Hank Williams, Jr. released his version, sounding "very much like Lewis's without a flashy piano",[3] in 1977 or early 1978.[4]

Background

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The circumstances of writing this song as recalled by Vic McAlpin are described in the Roger M. Williams's book Sing a Sad Song: The Life of Hank Williams:

[McAlpin] was sitting in Linebaugh's restaurant, a country music hangout in Nashville, when singer-composer Roger Miller walked in. After exchanging hellos, McAlpin asked jokingly, "How's my ex-girl friend treatin' you?" "About like she's treatin' you," Miller replied.

"That really hit me," recalls McAlpin. "I jumped up, got a pencil, and wrote eight lines of a song based on that on a napkin. Then I turned the napkin over and over and wrote eight more. Jerry Lee Lewis recorded it, and it sold over a hundred thousand."[5]

Track listing

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7" single (Sun 379, 1962)[1]
No.TitleLength
1."Sweet Little Sixteen"2:52
2."How's My Ex Treating You"2:35

References

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  1. ^ a b "ultratop.be - Jerry Lee Lewis - Sweet Little Sixteen". Ultratop. Retrieved 2020-04-23.
  2. ^ Nielsen Business Media, Inc. (18 August 1962). Billboard. Nielsen Business Media, Inc. pp. 37–. ISSN 0006-2510. {{cite book}}: |author= has generic name (help)
  3. ^ Barbara Ching (19 July 2001). Wrong's What I Do Best: Hard Country Music and Contemporary Culture. Oxford University Press. pp. 85–. ISBN 978-0-19-028309-4. The first, Jerry Lee Lewis's "How's My Ex Treating You" sounds very much like Lewis without a flashy piano.
  4. ^ "How's My Ex Treating You by Hank Williams, Jr. - Samples, Covers and Remixes". WhoSampled. Retrieved 2020-04-23.
    "Cover versions of How's My Ex Treating You by Jerry Lee Lewis". SecondHandSongs. Retrieved 2020-04-23.
  5. ^ Roger M. Williams (1981). Sing a Sad Song: The Life of Hank Williams. University of Illinois Press. pp. 108–. ISBN 978-0-252-00861-0.