3 Songs From 1961 That Single-Handedly Changed Country Music Forever

Some of the most groundbreaking country music first hit the airwaves way back in 1961. And those very songs would set the mood for the genre for the rest of the decade. Let’s dive into just three important country music tunes from 1961 that more or less influenced the whole of the genre for decades to come!

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“I Fall To Pieces” by Patsy Cline

We didn’t get to enjoy Patsy Cline’s musical magic and vibrant energy for very long. She passed away in 1963 at the age of only 30. But while she was alive, she blessed us with some seriously beautiful music, like this country music game-changer from 1961. “I Fall To Pieces”, outside of maybe “Crazy” from that same year, remains Cline’s most memorable song. It was also her first chart-topping hit on the Billboard country charts. She was one of the first country darlings to cross over to the pop charts, and she had a big hand in popularizing what would be known years later as country pop.

“Big Bad John” by Jimmy Dean

“Big Bad John” by Jimmy Dean was one of the biggest No. 1 hit songs of the year 1961, and not just on the country charts. This song, with its “talking blues” vibe, made it all the way to the top of the Hot 100. And the Grammy-winning track popularized the art of storytelling in country music, which would be further popularized by outlaw country stars like Willie Nelson and Johnny Cash. “Big Bad John” forgoes the then-typical country love song formula and instead tells a story rich in American folklore. It’s wild to think that Columbia Records was thinking about dropping Dean before this massive hit dropped. Thankfully, they didn’t.

“Hello Walls” by Faron Young

We mentioned Willie Nelson earlier, and it feels appropriate to mention him with a song he actually wrote. And not only did Nelson write “Hello Walls” for Faron Young back in 1961, but the song would be the first one to introduce Nelson to a broad, national audience. Without this excellent tune, who knows if Nelson’s career would have taken off in the mid-1970s? This is certainly a historically significant country music tune from 1961, and it’s also an overall great song.

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