A conventional T1-weighted spin-echo (SE) magnetic resonance (MR) imaging sequence was compared with breath-hold and non-breath-hold half- Fourier single-shot fast SE MR sequences with black-blood preparation and high spatial resolution for imaging of various cardiac diseases. The optimized single-shot fast SE sequence provided better or equal image quality in less time. Breath-hold and non-breath-hold single-shot fast SE sequences may replace the conventional T1-weighted SE sequence for first-line cardiac MR imaging.