May 20, 2022 —– Chart #144
Have you seen us on Facebook? CLICK HERE to like our page. Today for my 144th Chart of the Week I am going way back to 1961, or maybe even further. “Crazy” is a song written by Willie Nelson and popularized by country singer Patsy Cline in 1961. Nelson wrote the song while living in Houston, working for Pappy Daily’s label D Records sometime well before 1961. He was also a radio DJ and performed in clubs. Nelson then moved to Nashville, Tennessee, working as a writer for Pamper Music. Through Hank Cochran, the song reached Patsy Cline. After her original recording and release, Cline’s version reached number two on Billboard’s Hot Country Singles, also crossing to the pop chart as a top 10 single.
Cline’s version is considered a country music standard and, in 1996, became the all-time most played song in jukeboxes in the United States. “Crazy” was covered by many artists; different versions reached the charts in a variety of genres. The song was featured in television shows, while many publications listed it to best songs lists. The Library of Congress inducted Cline’s version into the National Recording Registry in 2003.
In 1958, while performing around Fort Worth, Texas and working as a DJ hosting The Western Express, Willie Nelson attracted the attention of Pappy Daily. Daily, a record producer from Houston, offered Nelson a recording contract with D Records as well as a job as a writer for Glad Music. Nelson moved to Houston, where he also searched for musical gigs in ballrooms and clubs. At the Esquire Ballroom, band leader Larry Butler told Nelson that he could not offer a musician job. In response, Nelson suggested he sell original songs that he played for Butler on a reel-to-reel tape recorder. Butler liked the songs, but refused to buy, instead offering Nelson a job working six nights a week with his band. Nelson and his family settled in Pasadena, Texas, where he became a DJ on radio station KRCT. Later, he also taught guitar.
Nelson used his commute from Pasadena to the Esquire Ballroom as writing time, because the 30 mile ride usually took an hour that he used to develop new lyrics. Over one week, he wrote “Crazy”, “Night Life”, and “Funny How Time Slips Away”. At the time, Nelson’s mood was negatively affected by his lack of stable employment while supporting his wife and three children, since his three jobs did not provide enough income. On his long night commutes to clubs, he compared his situation with those of his contemporaries and felt that “the world was asleep”. According to his autobiography It’s A Long Story: My Life, Nelson wondered if he were “Crazy” and completed the song as if he were a man whose relationship recently ended. Musician Sleepy LaBeef, who accompanied Nelson on upright bass on the song’s demo recording, asserted that the songwriter had arrived in Houston with “Crazy” already written. Additionally, biographer Joe Nick Patoski noted that Nelson played “Crazy” for Butler along with the songs he planned to sell just as he arrived in the city. Nelson wrote “Crazy” in less than an hour, and originally titled it “Stupid”. The intonation of the opening was inspired by Floyd Tillman’s “I Gotta Have My Baby Back”.
Willie Nelson recording 1964 (not what you are expecting: https://youtu.be/OnYEQbEHNZE
Willie Live in 1982: https://youtu.be/_0jOR5DC0rM
And this amazing little singer from Garland Texas: https://youtu.be/oglueOxXTSQ
Keep rockin my friends,
Stan