Sadly, Patsy Cline’s country music career lasted less than a decade before a plane crash tragically cut her life short at age 30. However, her musical legacy has lingered much longer, and she is still among the list of all-time greats more than 60 years after her untimely death. On Aug. 16, 1961, the Virginia native finally agreed to record the song that changed her career—and a genre—forever.
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Patsy Cline Didn’t Want To Record This Song At First
As the 1960s dawned, Willie Nelson was still making a name as a songwriter. The Red-Headed Stranger moved to Pasadena, Texas, in 1958, and worked three jobs—one of them six nights a week with his band at the Esquire Ballroom in Houston. He used the 30-minute daily commute to brainstorm lyrics, writing “Crazy,” “Night Life,” and “Funny How Time Slips Away” in the span of one week.
By this point, Patsy Cline was a seasoned performer, having already scored a pop crossover hit with “Walkin’ After Midnight.” Her husband, Charlie Dick, heard “Crazy” on a jukebox while waiting for Cline in a bar, and he knew his wife had to hear the song. So he brought home a demo and kept her awake “half the night” listening to it.
At first, Cline wasn’t too impressed. “She didn’t think too much of the song,” Dick recalled in a 2000 interview with NPR’s All Things Considered. “She just didn’t even want to hear Willie Nelson’s name mentioned.”
[RELATED: Butterflies in His Stomach: Why Willie Nelson Was Nervous to Pitch “Crazy” to Patsy Cline]
Through the combined efforts of Nelson’s colleague, Hank Cochran, and Cline’s producer, Owen Bradley, the singer eventually came around. Still recovering from a serious head-on car crash, Cline recorded “Crazy” in one take.
Remembering Patsy Cline, born on this day in 1932 in Winchester, Virginia. Here she is singing "Crazy" in 1962. pic.twitter.com/5oAhL9jJfy
— Dust-to-Digital (@dusttodigital) September 8, 2019
“Patsy Did Me Proud”
Released in October 1961, “Crazy” peaked at No. 2 on Billboard’s Hot Country Singles chart. It also hit No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming the most successful pop single of Patsy Cline’s career.
“Of all the versions of my songs covered by other artists, it’s my favorite,” Willie Nelson later said. “She understood the lyrics on the deepest possible level…Patsy did the song proud. She did me proud. I’m forever grateful for what I consider a perfect rendition.”
Featured image by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
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