About The Song
“It’s Four in the Morning” is a soulful country ballad by Faron Young, released in October 1971 as the title track and lead single from his Mercury Records album. Written by Jerry Chesnut, it became Young’s first No. 1 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart since 1961’s “Hello Walls,” topping the chart for one week in 1972 and charting for 17 weeks. It also hit No. 3 on the UK Singles Chart, a rare feat for a country song, and No. 9 in Australia, selling over 500,000 copies in the UK and 750,000 in North America by early 1973, earning a gold disc from the RIAA. The song’s 2:55 runtime captures a man’s sleepless longing at 4 a.m., torn between love and letting go, with lines like “Wishing I’d never met her, knowing if I’d forget her / How much better off she would be.” Young’s emotive delivery, described by Billboard as “heart-wrenching,” made it a career-defining hit. He told Country Music People in 1972, “Jerry’s song felt like my own regrets, sung straight from the gut.”
Recorded on September 28, 1971, at Mercury Custom Recording Studio in Nashville, the track was produced by Jerry Kennedy. The uncredited band, likely including Nashville A-Team players like Charlie McCoy on harmonica and Pete Drake on steel guitar, per Discogs, crafts a sparse, melancholic sound with gentle guitar and piano. AllMusic praises its “lean arrangement that lets Young’s voice carry the pain.” The album reached No. 10 on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart. The song’s G-C-D chord progression and “just woke up the wanting in me” refrain, per Genius, gave it radio staying power. Its crossover appeal, though modest in the US (No. 92 on the Billboard Hot 100), was historic, with a live clip airing as CMT’s first music video when the channel launched as CMTV on March 5, 1983.
Faron Young, born February 25, 1932, in Shreveport, Louisiana, was a honky-tonk legend dubbed the “Hillbilly Heartthrob.” Known for hits like “Live Fast, Love Hard, Die Young” and “If You Ain’t Lovin’ (You Ain’t Livin’),” he championed songwriters like Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson. By 1971, he was a Grand Ole Opry staple and Music City News founder, riding a late-career surge. The song was a live highlight, performed on his 1972 UK tour and at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium, with a 1972 Hee Haw clip on YouTube showcasing his charisma. Covers include Tom Jones (No. 36 Country, 1986), Willie Nelson with Young (1985), Ernest Tubb, and Bobby Flores (2013), per SecondHandSongs. Prefab Sprout’s 1985 song “Faron Young” nods to it, per Wikipedia.
No major film or TV placements are noted, but the song thrives on Spotify and karaoke platforms, with fans on Amazon calling it “pure country heartbreak.” No controversies surround it—just Young’s raw honesty, though his 1996 suicide at 64 casts a somber shadow, per Lyrics.com. Chesnut told CMT in 2000, “Faron made that song his own. He lived every word.” A Swedish adaptation, “Fyra på morgonen” by Alf Robertson, exists, but Young’s version remains iconic, a testament to his ability to turn regret into timeless art.
Video
Lyric
It’s four in the morning and once more the dawning
Just woke up the wanting in me
Wishing I’d never met her, knowing if I’d forget her
How much better off she would beThe longer I hold on and the longer this goes on
The harder that it’s gonna be
But it’s four in the morning and once more the dawning
Just woke up the wanting in meI’ve never deserved her, God knows when I hurt her
That’s the last thing that I want to do
She tries but she can’t tell how she feels
But I know too well what she’s going throughIf I love her so much, I don’t know why I can’t do
The right thing and just let her be
But it’s four in the morning and once more the dawning
Just woke up the wanting in meLast night I told her this time it’s all over
Making ten times I’ve told her goodbye
Last night we broke up, this morning I woke up
And for the tenth time I’m changing my mindI saw more love in her eyes when I left her
Than most foolish men will ever see
And it’s four in the morning and once more the dawning
Just woke up the wanting in meIt’s four in the morning and once more the dawning
Just woke up the wanting in me
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