"Bless Your Heart" was Freddie Hart's third number one hit in a year. The prolific country singer and composer kept the songs coming on Bless Your Heart, his hit album from 1972. Hart wrote or co-wrote six of the ten songs, including the title track. The album strays a bit from the romantic ballads at which Hart excels and offers up some gritty fare in David Frizzell's "Hungry Row," a downcast depiction of poverty. As if to ameliorate that cut's somber tone, Hart follows it up with the optimistic "I'm Not Going Hungry." "Human Rat Race" has something of a rhumba rhythm and a touch of Caribbean color in its arrangement, and stands with "Hungry Row" as one of the two stylistic orphans on the album, since the rest are heartfelt ballads. The love songs reflect Hart's desire to "write songs with words that every man would like to say and every woman would like to hear," a mission he unquestionably accomplished, at least for the country audience, in the 1970s.

FREDDIE HART
BLESS YOUR HEART

(Capitol ST-11073)

June/1972
Produced by Earl Ball


1.
BLESS YOUR HEART
(Freddie Hart - Jack Lebsock)
« © '72 Buckhorn Music, BMI »

Bless your heart for loving me
Ad heaven knows I don't deserve you
Bless your heart for loving me
Sweet sweet baby I'll try to be worthy of loving you

You came into my life and took the world off of my shoulders
Honey you're an angel in the eyes of this beholder
Bless your heart for loving me
Mere words cannot express what you are worth
Bless your heart for loving me
I know I've been given a taste of heaven right here on earth
Bless your heart
**********
2.
CRAVIN'
(Freddie Hart - Jim Dale - Douglas Lockwood)
« © '72 Tree Publishing, BMI »

Cravin' you've got me cravin'
Hungry for the taste of love in my world so young and new
Cravin' you've got me cravin' cravin' lovin' living a life with you

Love was just another word until you came along
Somehow you found that feeling that was hidden for so long
Your love is deep inside of me and my heart and soul you found
Now I'm just like a lonesome guy that's stands on shaky ground
Cravin' you've got me cravin'...
Cravin' you've got me cravin' cravin' lovin' living a life with you
**********
3.
I'M AFRAID TO LOVE YOU
(Harry Stride - Bert Douglas - Pat McCarthy)
« © '46 Peer International, BMI »

I'm afraid to love you afraid I might like it
I'm afraid to hold you afraid I might like it
For when your lips invite me to steal a kiss or two
I'm tempted but oh but I never fallow through

I'm afraid you'll thrill me thrill me then leave me
Oh what's another broken heart to you
If I act just like a stranger it's because I see the danger
I'm afraid to love you but I'm afraid I do
So if I act just like a stranger..
**********
4.
CONSCIENCE MAKES COWARDS (OF US ALL)
(Freddie Hart)
« © '72 Tree Publishing, BMI »

Conscience makes cowards of us all

I don't have to say I love you you know I worship you
Oh I would give just anything to share my life with you
But I can't leave her I just can't hurt her my mind would climb right up the wall
Conscience makes cowards of us all

I can't tell her I don't love her bacause I'm so afraid
Through hard times she stood by me and with all the heart she gave
And my little man wouldn't understand God knows I love him and he's so small
Conscience makes cowards of us all

Conscience can make us fall and weak can give a bravest man a yellow streak
I know my arms my lips will beg for you when your mem'ry I recall
Conscience makes cowards of us all of us all
Oh yes conscience makes cowards of us all
**********
5.
HUNGRY ROW
(David Frizzell)
« © '72 Tree Publishing, BMI »

Walking in my shabby coat and boy it sure is cold
Trying to get a hang-out here on Hungry Row
I'll wash your dishes I'll chop your wood
For bite I'll scrub your clothes
Cause beggars can't be choosers here on Hungry Row

Once I had the chance to see my little children grow
And my woman's love I've thought I had there's heavy on my soul
I've lost my wife to another man it's a story too many times told
Now I try to escape from her memory here on Hungry Row

Riding on an old freight car my future's black as coal
Depression's my companion here on Hungry Row
If you see me passin' by don't turn up your nose
I know someone just like you right here on Hungry Row
We all started out with big ideas love and money was our goal
And if it happens to you then you'll welcome to your place on Hungry Row
If it happens to you then you'll welcome to your place on Hungry Row Hungry Row
**********
6.
I'M NOT GOING HUNGRY
(Freddie Hart)
« © '72 Tree Publishing, BMI »

I'm not going hungry anymore

Your sweet love's what I've been hungry for
But since we locked our hearts together now my table's set forever
I'm not going hungry anymore

Happiness is where you are and that's all I need to know
I'm gonna plant a tree of love just sit back and watch it grow
I'm giving loving everything I got I'm struck awhile the iron is hot
I'm not going hungry anymore
Happiness is where you are...
Oh no I'm not going hungry anymore
**********
7.
EVERYTIME HE TOUCHES YOU
(Freddie Hart - Earl Ball)
« © '72 Tree Publishing, BMI »

Everytime he touches you I feel it all over me

I should mind my own business oh it's not of my affair
Who you're with and what you do I've got no right to care
But when he kisses you I taste it just the way it used to be
Everytime he touches you I feel it all over me

When we broke up we both said our goodbye
We decided would be better just to hang it out to dry
But after time your heart and mind had a craving to be free
Everytime he touches you I feel it all over me
When we broke up...
Everytime he touches you I feel it all over me
**********
8.
CINDERELLA
(Buddy Mize)
« © '66 Central Songs, BMI »

Cinderella Cinderella won't you let me take you home with me

So you found your Prince Charming was just a dream
There wasn't any Palace and you weren't a Queen
In your faded cotton dresses anyone can see you're still Cinderella to me
Cinderella Cinderella this is not the way love should be
Cinderella Cinderella won't you let me take you home with me

Our honeymoon may not be a fancy ball
You may not have a maid or butler at your call
But I'll be more than any prince could ever be you'll be Cinderella to me
Cinderella Cinderella...
Won't you let me take you home with me
**********
9.
UNTIL NOW
(Freddie Hart - James B. Jones - John Acton)
« © '72 Tree Publishing, BMI »

I just woke up with your pillow in my arms
I never thought that a night could be so long
I may make it through tomorrow but if I do I don't know how
There's never been one tear between us until now

Please forgive me but I just had to telephone
To say I want you God knows I miss you please come home
Who's wrong or right seems unimpartant to me now
I never knew how much I need you until now

I'll pay in one another the stranger tore apart
Jealousy was the enemy we let rain wash our heart
And I'm willing if you're willing we'll ride this Rolls somehow
I never knew how much I love you until now until now
**********
10.
HUMAN RAT RACE
(Gary Williams)
« © '72 Tree Publishing, BMI »

Oh the rat race the rat race living life at a terrible pace
Doggie dog so I take my place high on this human rat race

In old days I recall the door was opened to a friend
When our neighbor was in trouble we lend a helping hand
In so many ways the world was better off than now
Today it's all hurray for me and who cares anyhow
It's the rat race the rat race...

We brag about the progress that we made tear apart
Man's already scoff the wound reaching for the stars
With each step that we take forward seems we take to back
When corruption and stagnation is an everyday fact
It's the rat race the rat race...

Now everybody's wondering just where just it's gonna end
With friends you can count on the fingers of one hand
We should stand up for what's right and try to get invove
Pullin' freight together and our problems will be solved
But it's the rat race the rat race...
Oh it's the rat race the rat race...
**********

petrv@yahoo.com
Freddie Hart Discography