♫ Crazy ♫

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I was going to play one for Ellen tonight, but I remembered (with a little nudge of a reminder) that I had promised Larry last week that I would play this by Patsy Cline!  I tend to forget things, like where my car keys are when they are in my hand, and to put clothes into the washer before I run it, so it was no surprise that I forgot to play this for Larry.  Sorry, my friend! I will get to Ellen’s song tomorrow, if somebody will remind me.

Patsy-Cline

I had no idea, until 3 minutes ago, that this song, released in 1961, was written by none other than Willie Nelson!  At the time, Willie was a struggling country singer and got a big break when Cline recorded this and made it a hit. It has become one of Nelson’s most enduring songs. He covered the song for his own debut album, …And Then I Wrote, in 1962.  Willie later revealed that the original title of the song was to be Stupid.

I also did not know that just two months before she recorded Crazy, Ms. Cline was in a serious auto accident and was thrown through the windscreen (remember, they didn’t even have seatbelts back then), and at the first session, she couldn’t hit the high notes because of a broken rib, so the studio musicians recorded their parts without her. Two weeks later, she did her vocals while standing on crutches.

Tragically, Patsy would die in a plane crash just two years after the release of this song, at the young age of only 30.

There is so much fascinating trivia about Patsy Cline that I cannot possibly include it all here, but here are a few tidbits …

  • She was the first female country singer to headline in Vegas
  • She became the first solo female artist to be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1973
  • In 1997, Cline’s recording of “Crazy” was named the number one jukebox hit of all time
  • Her given name was Virginia Patterson Hensley and as a child she was known as Ginny
  • In 1993, the U.S. Postal Service created special-issue postage stamps to honor Patsy Cline, along with other country superstars such as Hank Williams, the Carter Family and Bob Wills.
  • When Patsy was 13, she was hospitalized with a throat infection and rheumatic fever. She later said, “The fever affected my throat and when I recovered I had this booming voice like Kate Smith.”

Wikipedia has an impressive amount of detail about Patsy’s life, death, and the mark she left on the music industry … check it out if you’re interested.  And another article I came across, 10 Things You Didn’t Know About Patsy Cline, also had some really interesting facts and trivia.

Thanks Larry … I had fun doing the legwork on this one!

Crazy
Patsy Cline

Crazy, I’m crazy for feeling so lonely
I’m crazy, crazy for feeling so blue
I knew you’d love me as long as you wanted
And then someday you’d leave me for somebody new

Worry, why do I let myself worry?
Wondering what in the world did I do?
Crazy for thinking that my love could hold you
I’m crazy for trying and crazy for crying

And I’m crazy for loving you
Crazy for thinking that my love could hold you
I’m crazy for trying and crazy for crying
And I’m crazy for loving you.

Songwriters: Willie Nelson
Crazy lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

18 thoughts on “♫ Crazy ♫”

  1. Jill, Patsy Cline had style and a little sass that came across in her songs. Willie Nelson sings a great version of his song, but Cline makes it her own.

    Two movie moments stand out. In “Doc Hollywood,” with Michael J. Fox, “Crazy” is the song playing at the town fair where the young couple seem to be the only ones on the dance floor.

    The other is in “Coal Miner’s Daughter with Sissy Spacek playing Loretta Lynn and Beverly D’Angelo doing a perfect Patsy Cline. I remember the scene where Cline performs at the Grand Ole Opry for the first time after her car accident. In the middle of her song, she turns to Lynn who is off stage and winks meaning “I got this.”

    I like to think that moment actually occurred. Have a good one. Keith

    Liked by 1 person

    • I never saw Doc Hollywood, but I do remember the scene in Coal Miner’s Daughter. I’m not a fan of country, but I certainly respect Patsy Cline’s music … so tragic that her life was cut short, and from what I read, could easily have been avoided.

      Like

  2. The first time I learned of or listened to Patsy Cline was watching the movie Coal Miner’s Daughter. You would think a West Virginia girl would listen to Patsy Cline. This is the one song I like.

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  4. Patsy Cline’s 1961 song “I Fall To Pieces” was played over and over and over by my then 16 year old newly “dumped” and forlorn elder sister. The 45 rpm became scratched and scarred from the constant lifting of the needle back to the beginning each time the record ended, the tears hitting it probably didn’t help either. But on it played, until even I knew the words by heart due to sharing a bedroom with her. Her broken heart was mended two months later when she started dating an ‘older man’, he was 17, and the “dumper” was relegated to history…but the song was never forgotten by either of us. The older man gave her the album “Showcase” for Christmas, that had been released at the end of 1961, because she loved Patsy Cline’s “True Love” and another love song on it that I no longer recall. I thought it bizarre that “I Fall To Pieces” was on that album too! Thank-you!

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      • Jill, my poor sister was devastated for the best part of two whole months, she was tossed aside by the then love of her life, she was bereft, her heart was broken into tiny pieces that she thought would never heal…what sort of sister would not, at the very least, sit in sympathetic silence and hand her dry handkerchiefs as she cried until her eyes were red and swollen as she listened to this song. I will admit to reading a book at the same time, often she was weeping too hard to notice. It was a tragedy at the time that now seems amusing. I have not heard that song in decades, but could sing it still! Thank-you!

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  6. I adore Patsy Cline, her soulful inflections are so crazy good. Interesting that Patsy did not care for Willie Nelson or this song Crazy, she complained it was too sentimental and slow. But when she got into the recording studio only one take was needed, she sang with so much feeling and style the rest was history! Luv it ❤

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  7. Ooooooh, thank you so much. Good stuff. I became a fan of Patsy posthumously and country in general when the rock of the 70s and 80s left me cold. I appreciate all the details, my friend. 💖😢

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    • I’m not a fan of country, but there are some artists I do like, most notably Willie Nelson, so I was chuffed to read that he had written “Crazy”. ‘Twas my pleasure ,,, it was a fun one, for there was so much information about Patsy that I didn’t know.

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