Sunday, October 30, 2011

The Top 30 Songs by Diane Warren

The October 29, 2011 issue of Billboard has a feature on songwriter Diane Warren (“Diane Warren Teams up with Universal Music Group for International Publishing Deal”). Usually such features come accompanied with best-of lists, but this one did not. Since they didn’t make such a list, I will. Here are the top 30 songs written by Diane Warren, as determined by Dave’s Music Database. By the way, the link on #1 goes to a DMDB blog entry which was coincidentally written just this week!

1. Un-Break My Heart…Toni Braxton (1996)
2. Because You Loved Me…Celine Dion (1996)
3. How Do I Live…LeAnn Rimes (1997)
4. I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing…Aerosmith (1998)
5. Look Away…Chicago (1988)
6. Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now…Starship (1987)
7. How Do I Live…Trisha Yearwood (1997)
8. There You’ll Be…Faith Hill (2001)
9. Love Will Lead You Back…Taylor Dayne (1990)
10. Blame It on the Rain…Milli Vanilli (1989)

11. Don’t Turn Around…Ace of Base (1994)
12. When the Night Comes…Joe Cocker (1989)
13. Missing You Now…Michael Bolton with Kenny G (1992)
14. How Can We Be Lovers…Michael Bolton (1990)
15. If You Asked Me To…Celine Dion (1992)
16. When I See You Smile…Bad English (1989)
17. Can’t Fight the Moonlight…LeAnn Rimes (2000)
18. Rhythm of the Night…DeBarge (1985)
19. By the Time This Night Is Over…Kenny G with Peabo Bryson (1993)
20. If I Could Turn Back Time…Cher (1989)

21. I’ll Never Get Over You Getting Over Me…Expose (1993)
22. For You I Will…Monica (1997)
23. When I’m Back on My Feet Again…Michael Bolton (1990)
24. Time, Love & Tenderness…Michael Bolton (1991)
25. I Learned from the Best…Whitney Houston (1999)
26. I Get Weak…Belinda Carlisle (1988)
27. I Don’t Wanna Live Without Your Love…Chicago (1988)
28. Set the Night to Music…Roberta Flack with Maxi Priest (1991)
29. I’ll Be Your Shelter…Taylor Dayne (1990)
30. Just Like Jesse James…Cher (1989)

Awards:

Resources and Related Links:

Diane Warren’s DMDB Encyclopedia entry

Saturday, October 29, 2011

The T.A.M.I. Show was taped for television broadcast: October 28-29, 1964

Check out these books by Dave Whitaker available through DavesMusicDatabase.com or Amazon.

Also check the Dave’s Music Database Facebook page for daily music-related posts.

The T.A.M.I. Show is a 1964 concert film. T.A.M.I. was an acronym for Teenage Awards Music International, sometimes for Teen Age Music International. Free tickets were given out to local high school students to see two live performances taped at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium on October 28 and 29. Director Quentin Tarantino has said it ranks “in the top three of all rock movies” ^AZ and Amazon.com’s Donald Leibenson says it is “arguably the very best rock-concert movie ever made.” ^AZ

Jan and Dean, who also performed, served as the hosts for a slew of significant rock ‘n’ roll and R&B acts from the time. Over two hours, audiences were treated to performances from The Beach Boys, Chuck Berry, Marvin Gaye, Gerry & the Pacemakers, Lesley Gore, Billy J. Kramer & the Dakotas, The Miracles, The Rolling Stones, and The Supremes.

However, the most-talked about performance from the show belonged to James Brown. Producer Rick Rubin has said it “may be the single greatest rock & roll performance ever captured on film.” ^WK The Rolling Stones’ Keith Richards has said that performing after Brown may have been the biggest mistake his group ever made. ^WK

The movie gained legendary status because, after its original airing in December 1964, it was not officially released until 2010. Fans had to make do with bootlegs of the performances.

Awards:

National Film Registry

Resources and Related Links:

Friday, October 21, 2011

Time Magazine: All-TIME 100 Songs

Time Magazine:

All-TIME 100 Songs

In 2011, Time magazine critics crafted their “All-TIME 100 Songs” list of what they called “the most extraordinary English-language popular recordings since the beginning of TIME magazine in 1923.” Their list was unranked, but the songs have been ranked here based on their overall status in Dave’s Music Database.

This is a bizarre list. While it should be commended for its breadth in representing different genres and eras, it constantly creates head-scratching moments. In the Elvis Presley canon, how is “Jailhouse Rock” more listworthy than “Heartbreak Hotel,” “Hound Dog,” or “Don’t Be Cruel”? Led Zeppelin’s “Immigrant Song” over “Stairway to Heaven” and “Whole Lotta Love”? Madonna’s “Borderline” instead of “Like a Virgin” or “Like a Prayer”?

The DMDB works hard to recognize the subjectivity of any list. Still, there are some oversights that are overwhelming glaring. When you scroll to the bottom of the list, it’s baffling to try to understand how Time decided Lucinda’s “Pineola” and Lil Wayne’s “Georgia Bush” seemed more noteworthy than Bill Haley & the Comets’ “We’re Gonna Rock Around the Clock,” the Rolling Stones’ “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction,” the Beatles’ “Hey Jude,” John Lennon’s “Imagine,” the Police’s “Every Breath You Take,” and Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You” (all in the top 10 of all time according to the DMDB).

Click here to see other lists from publications and/or organizations.

1. Bing Crosby with the Ken Darby Singers “White Christmas” (1942)
2. Michael Jackson “Billie Jean” (1982)
3. Queen “Bohemian Rhapsody” (1975)
4. Nirvana “Smells Like Teen Spirit” (1991)
5. The Beatles “I Want to Hold Your Hand” (1963)
6. Marvin Gaye “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” (1968)
7. Bee Gees “Stayin’ Alive” (1977)
8. Judy Garland “Over the Rainbow” (1939)
9. Sinéad O’Connor “Nothing Compares 2 U” (1990)
10. OutKast “Hey Ya!” (2003)

11. Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers with Leo Reisman’s Orchestra “Cheek to Cheek” (1935)
12. Elvis Presley “Jailhouse Rock” (1957)
13. Chuck Berry “Johnny B. Goode” (1958)
14. Bessie Smith with Louis Armstrong “St. Louis Blues” (1925)
15. Stevie Wonder “Superstition” (1972)
16. Les Brown with Doris Day “Sentimental Journey” (1945)
17. Ray Charles “What’d I Say” (1959)
18. The Ronettes “Be My Baby” (1963)
19. Beyoncé “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It) ” (2008)
20. Buddy Holly and The Crickets “That’ll Be the Day” (1957)

21. The Beach Boys “God Only Knows” (1966)
22. Paul Robeson “Ol’ Man River” (1928)
23. Les Paul with Mary Ford “How High the Moon” (1951)
24. Patsy Cline “Crazy” (1961)
25. Kanye West with Jamie Foxx “Gold Digger” (2005)
26. Joy Division “Love Will Tear Us Apart” (1980)
27. The Jackson 5 “I Want You Back” (1969)
28. Little Richard “Tutti Frutti” (1955)
29. Billie Holiday “Strange Fruit” (1939)
30. Lady Gaga “Bad Romance” (2009)

31. The Supremes “Where Did Our Love Go” (1964)
32. Cab Calloway “Minnie the Moocher (The Ho De Ho Song)” (1931)
33. New Order “Blue Monday” (1983)
34. Woody Guthrie “This Land Is Your Land” (1944)
35. David Bowie “Heroes” (1977)
36. Fleetwood Mac “Dreams” (1977)
37. Prince “Kiss” (1986)
38. Duke Ellington “It Don’t Mean a Thing if It Ain’t Got That Swing” Duke Ellington (1932)
39. Missy “Misdemeanor” Elliott “Get Ur Freak On” (2001)
40. Public Enemy “Fight the Power” (1989)

41. The Who “Baba O’Riley” (1971)
42. The Andrews Sisters “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy” (1941)
43. The Rolling Stones “Gimme Shelter” (1969)
44. Roy Orbison “Crying” (1961)
45. Pulp “Common People” (1995)
46. Donna Summer “I Feel Love” (1977)
47. Hank Williams “Cold, Cold Heart” (1951)
48. The Carter Family “Wildwood Flower” (1928)
49. Bruce Springsteen “Thunder Road” (1975)
50. Mahalia Jackson “Move on Up a Little Higher” (1948)

51. Stan Getz & Astrud Gilberto “The Girl from Ipanema” (1964)
52. Radiohead “Paranoid Android” (1997)
53. George Jones “He Stopped Loving Her Today” (1980)
54. Bob Dylan “Subterranean Homesick Blues” (1965)
55. Ramones “I Wanna Be Sedated” (1978)
56. Louis Armstrong “Stardust” (1931)
57. Tupac Shakur (2pac) with Dr. Dre & Roger Troutman “California Love” (1996)
58. Crosby, Stills & Nash “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes” (1969)
59. James Brown “Get Up, I Feel Like Being a Sex Machine” (1970)
60. Johnny Cash “Folsom Prison Blues” (1955)

61. Jay-Z “99 Problems” (2004)
62. R.E.M. “It’s the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)” (1987)
63. Boney M “Rivers of Babylon” (1978)
64. Black Sabbath “Iron Man” (1970)
65. Spike Jones “Der Fuehrere’s Face” (1942)
66. Lena Horne “Stormy Weather (Keeps Rainin' All the Time)” (1942)
67. Aretha Franklin “I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You” (1967)
68. Frank Sinatra “I’ve Got You Under My Skin” (1956)
69. Madonna “Borderline” (1984)
70. Loretta Lynn “Coal Miner’s Daughter” 1970)

71. Dolly Parton “Jolene” (1973)
72. Ethel Merman “I Got Rhythm” (1930)
73. Funkadelic “One Nation Under a Groove” (1978)
74. Al Jolson “My Mammy” (1928)
75. The Band “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” (1969)
76. Led Zeppelin “Immigrant Song” (1970)
77. Otis Redding “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long” (1965)
78. Metallica “Master of Puppets” (1986)
79. Kitty Wells “It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky-Tonk Angels” (1952)
80. Betty Hutton “It Had to Be You” (1944)

81. The Notorious B.I.G. “Juicy” (1994)
82. Arcade Fire “Wake Up” (2005)
83. Ray Heatherton “Where or When” (1937)
84. Ella Fitzgerald “Baby It’s Cold Outside” (1949)
85. Janelle Monáe with Big Boi “Tightrope” (2010)
86. Big Star “September Gurls” (1974)
87. Wu-Tang Clan “C.R.E.A.M. (Cash Rules Everything Around Me)” (1994)
88. Velvet Underground “Rock and Roll” (1970)
89. Joni Mitchell “A Case of You” (1971)
90. LCD Soundsystem “All My Friends” (2007)

91. Pet Shop Boys “Being Boring” (1990)
92. A Tribe Called Quest with Busta Rhymes “Scenario” (1992)
93. Richard Thompson “1952 Vincent Black Lightning” (1991)
94. Bonnie Raitt “Angel from Montgomery” (1971)
95. Willie Mae “Big Mama’ Thornton “Ball and Chain” (1968)
96. Fela Kuti “Zombie” (1976)
97. Peter Tosh “Equal Rights” (1977)
98. Odetta Holmes “Take This Hammer” (1955)
99. Lucinda Williams “Pineola” (1992)
100. Lil Wayne “Georgia Bush” (2006)

Resources/Related Links:

Dave’s Music Database: “Lists from other publications and/or organizations”
Time Magazine (10/21/2011). “All-Time 100 Songs”

First posted 3/30/2021.

Thursday, October 20, 2011

First Rock and Roll Record box set released

The First Rock and Roll Record

Various Artists

Released: October 20, 2011

Recorded: 1916-1956

Peak: -- US, -- UK, -- CN, -- AU

Sales (in millions): -- US, -- UK, -- world (includes US and UK)

Genre: rock/pop/country/R&B/blues

Tracks:

Artist “Song Title” (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to singles charts.

Disc 1:

Unknown Artist “The Camp Meeting Jubilee” (1916)
Trixie Smith “My Man Rocks Me with One Steady Roll” (1922)
Jim Jackson “Kansas City Blues” (1927)
Charley Patton “Going to Move to Alabama” (1929)
Hank Williams “Move It on Over” (8/9/47, 4 CW)
Tampa Red “It’s Tight Like That” (1927)
Clarence “Pinetop” Smith “Pinetop’s Boogie Woogie” (2/9/29, 20 US)
Jimmy Blythe “Jimmy Blues” (1925)
Blind Roosevelt Graves “Crazy About My Baby” (1929)
Washboard Rhythm Kings “Tiger Rag” (1932)
Boswell Sisters “Rock and Roll” (11/10/34, 7 US)
Benny Goodman with Helen Ward “Get Rhythm in Your Feet” (1934)
The Harlem Hamfats “Oh Red!” (1934)
Mississippi Jook Band “Skippy Whippy” (1936)
Robert Johnson “Cross Road Blues” (1936)
Benny Goodman with Gene Krupa “Sing, Sing, Sing (With a Swing)” (4/9/38, 7 US)
Ella Fitzgerald “Rock It for Me” (2/19/38, 19 US)
Sister Rosetta Tharpe “Rock Me” (1938)
Bob Wills “Ida Red” (1938)
Big Joe Turner “Roll ‘Em Pete” (1938)
Buddy Jones “Rockin’ Rollin’ Mama” (1939)
John Lee Williamson “New Early in the Morning” (1940)
Will Bradley “Down the Road a Piece” (1940)
The Andrews Sisters “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy” (3/1/41, 6 US)
Virginia O’Brien “Lullaby (Rock-a-Bye Baby)” (1941)

Disc 2:

Lionel Hampton &nd His Orchestra “Flying Home” (5/11/40, 23 US, airplay: 1 million)
Illinois Jacquet “Blues, Pt. 2” (1944)
T-Bone Walker “Mean Old World” (1942)
Judy Garland “The Joint Is Really Jumpin’ Down at Carnegie Hall” (1943)
Gertrude Niesen “Rockin’ the Town” (1938)
Nat “King” Cole “Straighten Up and Fly Right” (4/15/44, 9 US, 1 CW, 1 RB)
Sister Rosetta Tharpe “Strange Things Happening Every Day” (1944)
Helen Humes “Be Baba Leba” (12/15/45, 3 RB)
Joe Liggins & His Honeydrippers “The Honeydripper” (10/20/45, 13 US, 1 RB, sales: 1 million)
Arthur Smith & His Cracker Jacks “Guitar Boogie” (7/10/48, 25 US)
Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup “That’s All Right, Mama” (1946)
Louis Jordan “Let the Good Times Roll” (12/21/46, 2 RB)
Freddie Slack with Ella Morse “The House of Blue Lights” (5/18/46, 8 US)
The Delmore Brothers “Hillbilly Boogie” (1946)
Pee Wee King “Ten Gallon Boogie” (1947)
Wynonie Harris “Good Rocking Tonight” (5/1/48, 1 RB)
Wild Bill Moore “We’re Gonna Rock, We’re Gonna Roll” (1947)
Muddy Waters “I Can’t Be Satisfied” (9/18/48, 11 RB)
Amos Milburn “Chicken Shack Boogie” (1948)
Bill Haley “Rovin’ Eyes” (1948)
The Orioles “It’s Too Soon to Know” (11/6/48, 13 US, 1 RB)
Stick McGhee “Drinking Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee” (4/2/49, 26 US, 2 RB)
Erline Harris “Rock and Roll Blues” (1949)
Jimmy Preston “Rock the Joint” (1949)
Louis Jordan & His Tympany Five “Saturday Night Fish Fry” (10/8/49, 21 US, 1 RB, sales: 1 million)
Fats Domino “The Fat Man” (2/18/50, 2 RB, sales: 1 million)
Goree Carter “Rock a While” (1949)

Disc 3:

Hardrock Gunter “Gonna Dance All Night” (1950)
Arkie Shibley & His Mountain Dew Boys “Hot Rod Race” (1950)
The Dominoes “Sixty Minute Man” (8/25/51, 17 US, 1 RB, sales: 1 million)
Les Paul & Mary Ford “How High the Moon” (3/31/51, 1 US, 3 HP, 1 CB, sales: 1 million)
Jackie Brenston & His Delta Cats “Rocket 88” (5/12/51, 1 RB)
Charli Gracie “Boogie Woogie Blues” (1951)
Big Mama Thornton “Hound Dog” (3/28/53, 1 RB)
Charli Gracie “Rockin' an’ Rollin’” (1952)
Lloyd Price “Lawdy Miss Clawdy” (5/17/52, 1 RB, sales: 1 million)
The Dominoes “Have Mercy Baby” (5/24/52, 1 RB)
The Clovers “One Mint Julep” (4/19/52, 2 RB)
The Crows “Gee” (3/6/54, 14 US, 2 RB)
Bill Haley & His Comets “Crazy Man Crazy” (5/23/53, 12 US)
Ray Charles “Mess Around” (6/19/53, 3 RB)
Clyde McPhatter & the Drifters “Money Honey” (10/31/53, 1 RB)
The Johnny Burnette Trio “Honey Hush” (1953)
Big Joe Turner “Shake, Rattle, and Roll” (5/8/54, 22 US, 1 RB)
The Chords “Sh-Boom” (7/3/54, 5 US, 3 HP, 1 CB, 2 RB)
Sunny Dae & the Knights “Rock Around the Clock” (1954)
Ray Charles “I Gotta Woman” (1/22/55, 79 US, 78 HR, 1 RB)
Hank Ballard & the Midnighters “Work with Me, Annie” (6/5/54, 22 US, 1 RB)
The Robins “Riot in Cell Block #9” (1954)
LaVern Baker “Tweedle Dee” (1/15/55, 14 US, 3 CB, 1 RB, sales: 1 million)
Bo Diddley “Bo Diddley” (5/7/55, 6 US, 29 HR, 1 RB)
Chuck Berry “Maybellene” (8/6/55, 5 US, 5 CB, 4 HR, 1 RB, sales: 1 million)
Little Richard “Tutti Frutti” (11/26/55, 17 US, 10 CB, 2 RB, 29 UK)
Carl Perkins “Blue Suede Shoes” (3/3/56, 2 US, 2 CB, 1 HR, 1 CW, 2 RB, 10 UK, sales: 1 million, airplay: 2 million)
Elvis Presley “That’s Alright, Mama” (7/17/04, 3 UK, sales: ½ million)
Bill Haley & His Comets “We’re Gonna Rock Around the Clock” (5/10/54, 1 US, 1 HP, 1 CB, 1 HR, 3 RB, 1 UK, 26 CN, 1 AU, sales: 25 million)
Elvis Presley “Heartbreak Hotel” (3/3/56, 1 US, 1 HP, 1 CB, 1 HR, 1 CW, 3 RB, 2 UK, 1 CN, 3 AU, sales: 5 million, airplay: 2 million)

Total Running Time: 3:46:28

Rating:

4.685 out of 5.00 (average of 6 ratings)

Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Album:

“Rock & roll as an American musical form is very much like a delta, collecting elements from jazz, blues, country, gospel, R&B, show tunes, and whatever else was floating around into a high-charged, rambunctious music that defined and drove pop culture…So where is the start of all this?” ^AMG “It’s an unanswerable question, but the search for rock’s origins digs up many a treat” ^AP via this three-disc collection. “It delves back to the middle of the first world war, raking through blues, country, gospel, R&B, jazz and showtunes in search of clues.” ^AP

“You could say that The First Rock and Roll Record is exhaustive to a fault.” ^AP “The first CD seems less interested in music than in semantics” ^AP as it “explores songs from the 1920s, ‘30s, and ‘40s that feature rocking and/or rolling in the lyrics.” ^AMG “You start to wonder if the compilers think that there was any music released in America in the ‘30s and ‘40s that didn’t have an influence on the birth of rock ‘n’ roll, up to and including Judy Garland’s The Joint Is Really Jumpin’ Down at Carnegie Hall and the Andrews Sisters’ Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy.” ^AP

It always seems to have referred to transcendence of one kind or another… For those attending 1916’s Camp Meeting Jubilee, it was all about fervent prayer. For Trixie Smith – a more forthright lady than you might expect to meet in 1922 – it involved the more straightforward matter of availing yourself of a man in possession of an enormous penis and limitless stamina: by the end of My Man Rocks Me, she’s apparently been having it off non-stop for a hugely impressive nine hours.” ^AP “Fans of Marc Bolan might find their jaws dropping at Georgia bluesman Tampa Red’s frantic 1927 debut single It’s Tight Like That.” ^AP

“Midway through the second CD, however, things become noticeably more linear.” ^AP It is packed with songs that “if they weren’t actually rock ‘n’ roll, sounded so much like it as to make the argument academic: Amos Milburn’s Chicken Shack Boogie, Stick McGhee’s Drinking Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee, Fats Domino’s The Fat Man, the latter a fabulous, million-selling testament to the New Orleans’ singer’s qualities that suggests he might have got on a treat with Trixie Smith.” ^AP There’s also “Les Paul and Mary Ford’s timelessly amazing How High the Moon, the first single in the modern world to suggest the recording studio itself was a player in all this.” ^AMG

You also get a clear sense of how everything new owes a debt to the past. “Everyone who has read a little about rock’s origins knows Bill Haley’s Rock Around the Clock bore a suspicious resemblance to Hank Williams’ blackly comic 1947 tale of marital discord Move It on Over, or about the line that connects Robert Johnson’s handful of 1930s recordings to the musical explosion of the ‘60s.” ^AP

It wraps up appropriately with Elvis Presley and the first song he recorded after jumping from Sun Records to RCA for a then “unprecedented sum of $40,000.” ^BR As the King of Rock and Roll’s first ascension to the throne, Heartbreak Hotel is “as close to a template for the perfect rock & roll single as one is likely to find.” ^AMG The liner notes refer to it as “everything a rock and roll record should be.”

The compilers admit that they haven’t reached a definitive answer as to what the first rock and roll record is, but cheekily suggest that “whatever it is, it’s probably here.” In the end, though, this collection “is proof that sometimes, the evidence is more interesting than the verdict.” ^AP

Notes: The liner notes reference the Jim Dawson and Steve Propes’ book What Was the First Rock ‘n’ Roll Record?, noting that 37 of the 50 songs referenced in that book are included in this collection. A now dead link offers one the chance to download the other 13 songs, which are Jack McVea’s “Open the Door, Richard” (1946), Lonnie Johnson’s “Tomorrow Night” (1948), John Lee Hooker’s “Boogie Chillen” (1948), Professor Longhair’s “Mardi Gras in New Orleans” (1949), Muddy Waters’ “Rollin’ and Tumblin’” (1950), Hardrock Gunter’s “Birmingham Bounce” (1950), Hank Snow’s “I’m Movin’ On” (1950), Ruth Brown’s “Teardrops from My Eyes” (1950), Johnnie Ray with the Four Lads’ “Cry” (1961), Billy Haley & the Saddlemen’s “Rock the Joint” (1952), Hank Williams’ “Kaw-Liga” (1953), the Penguins’ “Earth Angel (Will You Be Mine)” (1954), and Johnny Ace’s “Pledging My Love” (1954).

Resources and Related Links:

^AMG All Music Guide review by Steve Leggett
^BR Fred Bronson (2003). The Billboard Book of Number 1 Hits. Billboard Books: New York, NY. Page 10.
^AP The Guardian (11/10/2011). “Various artists: The First Rock and Roll Record – review” by Alex Petridis

First posted 11/17/2020; last updated 2/5/2022.

Sunday, October 9, 2011

50 years ago: Patsy Cline charted with “Crazy”

Crazy

Patsy Cline

Writer(s): Willie Nelson (see lyrics here)

Recorded: August 21, 1961

First Charted: October 9, 1961

Peak: 9 US, 13 CB, 9 GR, 11 HR, 2 AC, 2 CW, 14 UK, 56 AU, 1 DF (Click for codes to charts.)

Sales (in millions): -- US, -- UK, -- world (includes US + UK)

Airplay/Streaming (in millions): 2.0 radio, 22.73 video, 61.28 streaming

Awards:

Click on award for more details.

About the Song:

Before Willie Nelson became one of country music’s top singers, he broke into the industry as a songwriter after “having tried everything from encyclopedia selling to hawking vacuum cleaners door-to-door.” ^HL After Faron Young took Nelson’s “Hello Walls” to the top of the country charts, seemingly everyone in town wanted a Willie song. Patsy Cline was looking for a follow-up to “I Fall to Pieces” which had potential to cross over to the pop charts. ^AC She loved his song “Funny How Time Slips Away,” but Billy Walker, whose relationship with Nelson went back to their Texas days, ^AC got to it first.

Cline was furious, but Willie and Billy thought her voice was perfect for another song Walker had demoed. ^AC When told the song title was “Crazy,” she shot back, “It sure is.” ^RS500 She was looking for the up-tempo fare she was more accustomed to singing. A slow-torch song was not what she had in mind. ^NPR Cline’s producer, Owen Bradley, was convinced of the song’s potential, believing it to be well suited to “her vocal talents and expressive style.” ^NPR

She was on crutches when she recorded the song. She had a fractured hip and near-fatal head injuries ^HL after she and her brother were in a head-on collision ^SS that threw her through the car’s windshield. ^HL “With a lush arrangement and understated backing vocals” ^RS500 from the Jordanaires alongside the “slow-burn sex appeal” ^RS500 she infused in the lyrics, she made the song her own. She recorded the vocal in one take ^TC for her “best-remembered performance.” ^HL It was “a perfect vehicle to showcase [her] poignant, heartbreaking voice and superb musicianship.” ^NRR It “bears the marks of Nelson’s idiosyncratic personality – it’s pop and jazz and western and not quite pure country.” ^TC

It became more than just Cline’s only top-10 pop hit and signature tune. Willie Nelson called it “the favorite of anything I ever wrote.” ^AC “The most enduringly popular ballad in country music history” ^SS is also the top jukebox single of all time. ^NPR It launched a new sound in country music called “countrypolitan” ^RS500 which gained popularity in the wake of rock and roll’s explosive success. ^NRR Sadly, Cline herself wouldn’t be around to see where country music was headed; she died in a plane crash in March 1963.

Resources:

^AC Ace Collins (1996). The Stories Behind Country Music’s All-Time Greatest 100 Songs. New York, NY; The Berkley Publishing Group. Page 157.
^TC Toby Creswell (2005). 1001 Songs: The Great Songs of All Time. Thunder’s Mouth Press: New York, NY. Pages 668-9.
^HL Michael Heatley and Spencer Leigh (1998). Behind the Song: The Stories of 100 Great Pop & Rock Classics. Blandford Books: London, UK. Page 15.
^NPR National Public Radio (1999). “The Most Important American Musical Works of the 20th Century”
^NRR National Recording Registry
^RS500 Rolling Stone (12/04). “The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time”
^SS Steve Sullivan (2013). Encyclopedia of Great Popular Song Recordings (Volumes I & II). Scarecrow Press: Lanham, Maryland. Pages 95-7.
^TB Thunder Bay Press (2006). Singles: Six Decades of Hot Hits & Classic Cuts. Outline Press Ltd.: San Diego, CA. Page 48.

Friday, October 7, 2011

50 years ago: “Moon River” hit the chart