Patsy Cline was born Virginia Patterson Hensley, on Sept 8th 1932, in Winchester, Virginia. She died March 5th 1963.
To most she is remembered for her distinct passionate voice, the song “Crazy” (Crazy for feeling so blue…crazy for crying…crazy for…and so forth) and for the fact that she died in her prime at the age of 30, just two years after “Crazy” was released. She was known before Crazy was released but it was Crazy that cemented her in as one of the great female singers in country music history.
She was discovered in 1957 (as in lets make money off her discovered) in a talent contest singing “Walkin’ After Midnight”, and then gets signed to Decca. Decca releases “Walkin’ After Midnight” (which she recorded with a different label called Four Star) which reaches number three on the country music charts, Decca then releases the stuff she has already recorded on a self titled LP. Three years later in her first session with Decca in Nashville she records “I Fall to Pieces” which reaches number one on the country charts in 1961.
1961 and 1962 are the big years for Patsy Cline, she releases two albums, Showcase and Sentimentally Yours which include the fore mention Willie Nelson penned track “Crazy” and “She Got You” as well as a reworking of “Walkin’ after Midnight” which is the version you are most likely to hear. The reason you are most likely to hear that version is because, like all Cline's Decca tracks, it was produced by the Nashville music uberlegend, Owen Bradley, who produced the music for six other Country Music Hall of Famers and is responsible for the feeling of the music (a bluesy country with pop possibilities) in which Patsy's voice sits so nicely. The next year, on March 5th, Patsy Cline dies in a plane crash. She only recorded music for 9 years and in that time released almost a hundred singles.
Everyone who hears her, except maybe some angsty teenagers, loves Patsy Cline. She had a beautiful voice and sang in an era that seems to be almost devoid of cynical irony. In other words she sounds pure and true. She is the classic female country singer and every female country singer afterwards will mention Patsy Cline as an influence. If you listen to her albums or her best of you will hear what I am saying.
tell me now, get it over, hurt me now, get it over