While the subject matter is straight barroom fare in the Ernest Tubb tradition, the song is musically unusual, with the chorus made up of three ten-beat phrases, plus two measures of four beats, for a highly unusual thirty-eight beat section; up till the last two turnaround measures of the chorus, this section could be written in 10/4 time.
The entire song is played over one chord, except for the last two beats of the third 10/4 phrase of the chorus, which briefly touches on the dominant.
[3] Surprised by the success of the unknown Williams, and equally impressed with the raw talent of the young songwriter, Rose got him a contract with MGM that was finalized on April 1, 1947.
On November 6, 1947, Williams recut "Honky Tonkin'" at Castle Studio in Nashville with backing from Robert "Chubby" Wise (fiddle), Jerry Byrd (steel guitar), Zeke Turner (lead guitar), and probably Louis Innis on bass and either Owen Bradley or Rose on piano.
To avoid confusion, Rose bought all the Sterling singles of "Honky Tonkin'" on May 17, 1947, for two thousand dollars and then sold them to MGM.