August 21: Patsy Cline recorded Willie Nelson’s Crazy in 1961
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.
June 13: Hank Williams recorded “Jambalaya (On the Bayou)” in 1952
Goodbye Joe me gotta go me oh my oh
Me gotta go pole the pirogue down the bayou
My Yvonne the sweetest one me oh my oh
Son of a gun we’ll have big fun on the bayou
Jambalaya and a crawfish pie and fillet gumbo
Cause tonight I’m gonna see my ma cher amio
Pick guitar fill fruit jar and be gay-o
Son of a gun we’ll have big fun on the bayou
Wikipedia:
A-side
“Jambalaya (On the Bayou)”
B-side
“Window Shopping”
Released
19 July 1952
Format
7″
Recorded
13 June 1952
at Castle Studio, Tulane Hotel, Nashville, Tennessee
Genre
Country
Length
2:52
Label
MGM
K-11283 (U.S. 7″)
Writer(s)
Hank Williams
“Jambalaya (On the Bayou)” is a song written and recorded by Americancountry music singer Hank Williams that was first released in July 1952. Named for a Creole and Cajun dish, jambalaya, it spawned numerous cover versions and has since achieved popularity in a number of music genres.
My doctor tells me I should start slowing it down – but there are more old drunks than there are old doctors so let’s all have another round.
~Willie Nelson
We create our own unhappiness. The purpose of suffering is to help us understand we are the ones who cause it.
~Willie Nelson
He [Willie Nelson] takes whatever thing he’s singing and makes it his. There’s not many people who can do that. Even something like an Elvis tune. You know, once Elvis done a tune, it’s pretty much done. But Willie is the only one in my recollection that has even taken something associated with Elvis and made it his. He just puts his sorta trip on it…
~Bob Dylan (28 April 1993)
Willie Nelson Induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame (1993):
Some people can’t talk and express themselves; with me, expression comes in the form of a song, and it makes me very happy. So I’d lose my blues, hang on to what little I had, and it became a style
~Lefty Frizzell
—
Lefty Frizzell was the definitive honky tonk singer, the vocalist that set the style for generations of vocalists that followed him. Frizzell smoothed out the rough edges of honky tonk by singing longer, flowing phrases — essentially, he made honky tonk more acceptable for the mainstream without losing its gritty, bar-room roots.
~Stephen Thomas Erlewine (allmusic.com)
I Love You A Thousand Ways & I Wan’t To Be With You Always:
“Seven Spanish Angels’ is the title of a song written by Troy Seals and Eddie Setser, and recorded by American country music artist Willie Nelson as a duet with Ray Charles. It was released in November 1984 as the first single from the album Half Nelson. Half Nelson is a compilation album of duets performed by Willie Nelson along with various other artists, released in 1985. It also includes a few never-before released hits as well. “Seven Spanish Angels” was the most successful of Ray Charles’ eight hits on the country chart. The single spent one week at number one and a total of twelve weeks on the country chart.
