The Top 20 Country Love Songs of All Time - Number 2

by Jim Poulton

Patsy Cline - Crazy

Photo courtesy of AVClub

Possibly the best known of all of Cline’s hits, Crazy was written by Willie Nelson in 1961, while he was still a young musician. Prior to that time, Nelson had written some songs for other performers, but he still hadn’t recorded a breakout hit of his own. When Cline released her version, it followed on a string of her prior hits (especially I Fall To Pieces), and its success helped to launch Nelson as both a performer and songwriter. While Crazy only made it to #2 on the Country Singles chart in 1962, it also crossed over to the US Hot 100 list (#9) and the Adult Contemporary list (#2), making it her biggest pop hit. Crazy has since been recognized as one of the great Country love songs. It was named #85 on Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

Cline originally disliked Crazy, claiming it was too difficult to sing. Her first demo of the song was a disaster, and she deliberated for several days about whether she would even complete it. When she came back into the studio, she recorded the vocal tracks we now know with no splices or dubs. Listening to this version, it’s difficult to imagine that Cline found the song difficult. Her smooth and easy approach to the melody is best heard in the length and strength of her sustains (listen, for example, to how long she holds the last ‘you'). As we’ve said before, Cline was a genius, and this song, maybe more than any other, proves it.

Here’s Willie Nelson’s original version. Notice the photograph on the album cover in the video – we’ve come to know a different Willie Nelson, haven’t we?