„Crazy” – Patsy Cline

„Crazy” is a ballad composed by Willie Nelson. It has been recorded by several artists, most notably by Patsy Cline, whose version was a #2 country hit in 1962. Partly due to the genre-blending nature of the song, it has been covered by dozens of artists in several genres over the years; Nevertheless, the song remains inextricably linked with Cline.

Patsy Cline, who was already a country music superstar and working to extend a string of hits, picked it as a follow up to her previous big hit „I Fall to Pieces„. „Crazy”, its complex melody suiting Cline’s vocal talent perfectly, was released in late 1961 and immediately became another huge hit for Cline and widened the crossover audience she had established with her prior hits. It spent 21 weeks on the chart and eventually became one of her signature tunes. Cline’s version is #85 on Rolling Stone‘s list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

According to the Ellis Nassour biography Patsy Cline, Nelson, who at that time was known as a struggling songwriter by the name of Hugh Nelson, was a regular at Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge on Nashville’s Music Row, where he frequented with friends Kris Kristofferson and Roger Miller, both unknown songwriters at that time. Nelson met Cline’s husband, Charlie Dick, at the bar one evening and pitched the song to him. Dick took the track home and played it for Cline, who absolutely hated it at first because Nelson’s demo „spoke” the lyrics to a faster tempo than what Cline later recorded as a ballad. Cline’s producer, Owen Bradley, loved the song and arranged it as the ballad it was recorded as. Still recovering from a recent automobile accident that nearly took her life, Cline had difficulty reaching the high notes of the song at first due to her broken ribs, so she came back the next day to record the vocal, which she did in one take. Another story has it that Cline tried to record the song for hours one night with no success. After visiting Willie Nelson and listining to how he would have sung it she made it within a few attempts the next recording session.

     Crazy – Patsy Cline

Written by Willie Nelson
(As performed by Willie Nelson)  Also performed by Patsy Cline and Ray Price

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
Wond’rin’
What in the world did I do

Oh! Crazy
For thinking that my love could hold you
I’m crazy for tryin’
I’m Crazy for cryin’
And I’m crazy
For lovin’ you

(Repeat last verse)