A great song (Willie «Hugh» Nelson), a great voice (Patsy Cline), and let’s not forget the producer (Owen Bradley) and the musicians and backup singers all come together in a legendary record!
A Classic that will never go out of style. Her voice… the lyrics… everything! We would always dance to this! Enjoy it!
«Crazy» is a ballad composed by Willie Nelson. It has been recorded by several artists, most notably by Patsy Cline, whose version was a No. 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. Nelson’s own version appears on his 1962 debut album… And Then I Wrote.
With some help from a friend named Oliver English, Nelson wrote the song in early 1961; at the time he was a journeyman singer-songwriter who had written several hits for other artists but had not yet had a significant recording of his own.
Nelson originally wrote the song for country singer Billy Walker who turned it down for the same reason Roy Druskyturned down «I Fall to Pieces» the previous year — that it was «a girl’s song». The song’s eventual success helped launch Nelson as a performer as well as a songwriter.
Musically the song is a jazz-pop ballad with country overtones and a complex melody. The lyrics describe the singer’s state of bemusement at the singer’s own helpless love for the object of his affection.
Patsy Cline was already a country music superstar[citation needed] and looking for material to extend a string of hits. She 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, 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 No. 85 on Rolling Stone’s list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
According to Willie Nelson in an interview with Sirius XM satellite radio he said that he was in a bar called Tootisie’s and had put his own song «Crazy» in the jukebox. Patsy Cline’s husband heard it and wanted to get it to Patsy. They were both drunk and Willie was reluctant even stayed in the car while her husband played it for her.
In the end she recorded it a few weeks later. In another interview Willie says that the song was originally called «Stupid», this matches with the live performance with Johnny Cash where he breaks a guitar string and ends up playing Crazy using Johnny’s guitar.
