By Billy Watkins
bwatkins@clarionledger.com

Hank Cochran was on a date to the movies, but he couldn't wait until it was over. A song was rattling around in his head, and he had to get it down on paper.

		Special to The Clarion-Ledger Hank Cochran Cochran's signature songs Hank Cochran wrote two songs that made him a songwriting legend. Here are some of the entertainers who have recorded Make the World Go Away and I Fall to Pieces. Make The World Go Away Charly McClain Dinah Shore Donny & Marie Osmond Eddy Arnold Elvis Presley Faron Young Floyd Cramer Hank Cochran/Jeannie Seely Hank Williams Jr Henry Mancini Jim Reeves Lawrence Welk Lou Rawls Osmond Family Ray Price Roger Whitaker Tom Jones I Fall To Pieces A. Neville/T. Yearwood Boots Randolph Crystal Gayle Danny Davis David Houston Faron Young Floyd Cramer Harlan Howard Jim Reeves Linda Ronstadt Loretta Lynn Michael Nesmith Patsy Cline Patsy Cline/Conway Twitty Patsy Cline/Jim Reeves Wanda Jackson Wille Nelson/Ray Price Source: www.hankcochran.com

"Let's go," he told his date.

"But the movie . . ." she said.

"Let's go," he repeated.

In the 15 minutes it took him to drive from the theater to his apartment in Nashville that night in the early 1960s, Cochran had written Make The World Go Away, which was a No. 1 hit for Eddy Arnold and has been recorded by 16 other artists, including Elvis Presley and Lou Rawls.

"But that's the way most of the really good ones come to me — zap!," says Cochran, by telephone at his home in Nashville. "I tell people all the time, I don't write songs. God writes 'em, and I just hold the pen. They think I'm kidding, but it's true."

Cochran, 68, a native of the small Delta town Isola, will be inducted Saturday night into the Mississippi Music Hall of Fame. He already is a member of the Nashville Songwriters International Hall of Fame and the Country Music Walk of Fame.

His selection was a no-brainer, says executive director Jim Brewer. "Hank Cochran has written many, many noteworthy songs."

When CMT recently ranked the Top 100 songs in country music history, three of them were Hank Cochran tunes. At one time, he had five of the Top 10 country hits on the charts.

His song list includes Fall to Pieces, a No. 1 hit for Patsy Cline that he co-wrote with Harland Howard; The Chair, a No. 1 song for George Strait; and Don't You Ever Get Tired (of Hurting Me), a No. 1 record for Ronnie Milsap.

Cochran has had songs recorded by Bing Crosby, Dean Martin, George Jones, Loretta Lynn, Reba McEntire, Nancy Sinatra, Emmylou Harris, Elvis Costello and Linda Ronstadt, among many others.

Forty-three years after arriving in Nashville, he's still churning out songs that current top-of-the-chart artists battle to claim. Womack has two of his songs on "hold," which means she has reserved the right to record them. Brad Paisley and McEntire recently recorded Cochran tunes.

And coming this fall is a tribute album to Patsy Cline. Four of Cochran's songs will be included and performed by Womack, Norah Jones, Natalie Cole and Rebecca Lynn Howard.

Meeting Cole in the recording studio was one of the most emotional events of his career, Cochran says.

"Nat King Cole was always my favorite," Cochran says of the late singer. "When me and Natalie were introduced, I could barely talk. I just broke down crying. She did, too. She knew how much I loved her daddy's music. So it's really special to me that she's singing one of my songs."

In a way, he gave us Willie Nelson.

Cochran talked executives at Pamper Music, a publishing company where he was a songwriter, to take a chance on Nelson.

"One night a bunch of us were in the back of Tootsie's (a famous bar in Nashville), and we were taking turns playing songs," Cochran recalls. "Every time it came around to Willie, I'd just sit there and listen to him, totally amazed. I finally said, 'Excuse me, but who wrote those songs?' He said, 'I did.' I wanted to know what publishing company he was with, and he said that nobody would sign him.

"I told him to be at Pamper the next day. He showed up in an old green Buick."

Cochran was making $50 a week at the time and was up for a $50 raise. When he urged his bosses to sign Nelson, they told him they couldn't afford it.

Cochran agreed to forego his raise and use the money to sign Nelson.

"Willie has thanked me a million times since then," Cochran says.

"I used to open shows for him, but after a while I told Willie I was headed to the house, that I'd be better off trying to get mine and his songs recorded and he could stay out on the road," Cochran says.

He laughs. "I just got back from five days with him on the road. A little bit of that will get to you."

		Special to The Clarion-Ledger Eddie and Hank Cochran performed as the Cochran Brothers, but they weren't really brothers.

He went through four divorces before finding Suzi, his wife of the past 21 years.

His parents divorced when he was 9. He moved to Memphis to live with his father and eventually wound up in an orphanage. He ran away a couple of times, and finally was sent to live with his grandparents in Waynesboro.

At age 12, he and his uncle Otis Cochran hitchhiked from Mississippi to New Mexico where they got jobs in the oil fields. His uncle taught him how to play guitar.

He returned to Mississippi for a while as a teenager, then moved to California and got a job picking olives. He also formed a duo with Eddie Cochran — The Cochran Brothers — though they were not related.

Hank Cochran moved to Nashville when he was 24, chasing the dream of becoming a songwriter. The dream panned out just like he had envisioned it.

"I knew I was left here for something," he says.

When Cochran was not yet 2 years old, he came down with pneumonia, whooping cough, measles and mumps all at the same time. The doctor called the family in from the fields, said there was nothing he could do.

His grandfather, a preacher who worked during the week sharpening saws, fell to his knees in prayer. "If that ain't what saved me, it sure had a lot to do with it," Cochran says.

That is the basis for the title track of his upcoming gospel album, Something About Jesus. Willie Nelson sings the chorus on the song.

"I knew it must be a pretty good song when Willie looked at me and said, 'Well, boy, you've done it again, haven't you?' " Cochran says. "I don't know where this stuff comes from. Like I said, all I do is hold the pen."