On This Day in 1961, Patsy Cline First Tried to Record Her Biggest Hit While Recovering From the Car Crash That Nearly Killed Her

On this day (August 21) in 1961, Patsy Cline entered the legendary Quonset Hut studio in Nashville for the first of two sessions that resulted in “Crazy.” The session took place just over two months after she was in a car accident that left her with life-threatening injuries. When she walked into the studio for the session, she did so on crutches with multiple bruised ribs.

On June 14, Cline and her brother were in a car accident. They were headed back to her home after an afternoon of shopping when another car hit them head-on. The impact threw her into the windshield, which caused a large cut across her forehead, a broken wrist, a dislocated hip, and bruised ribs. Hospital staff didn’t expect her to survive. Six weeks later, she was on the Grand Ole Opry stage. She was still healing when the time came to record the follow-up to her hit single “I Fall to Pieces.”

Patsy Cline Walked into a Complicated Session

Before the 1960s, recording sessions were relatively simple. It was not unusual for an artist to cut three or four songs in a single afternoon. Things were changing by 1961, though. The Nashville Sound was developing, arrangements were becoming more intricate, and sessions were getting more complicated. Cline’s producer, Owen Bradley, was heavily involved with the development of this new style. “Crazy” allowed him to experiment.

Musically, “Crazy” mirrored the ongoing changes in country music. “Willie [Nelson] wrote and was writing, at that time, early ’60s, very different songs from typical country music fare,” genre historian Paul Kingsbury told NPR. “Instead of the usual three or four chords that were just major chords and sevenths, he was writing ‘Crazy’ with jazzy minor sevenths, major sevenths, minors,” he explained.

Bradley had lined up the Jordanaires for the session. He also brought in the up-and-coming session pianist Floyd Cramer. At the same time, there was no sheet music for “Crazy.” As a result, Bradley, seven musicians, and a group of backing vocalists were working out the arrangement on the fly. This took up the bulk of the four-hour session that took place on August 21.

[RELATED: Behind the Song: Willie Nelson, “Crazy”]

Cline was in so much pain that she couldn’t hit the right notes. Eventually, Bradley told her to go home and rest.

Three weeks later, on September 15, Patsy Cline walked into the studio and laid down the vocal track for “Crazy” in a single take. On October 15, it was on its way to being a massive crossover hit.

Featured Image by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

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