“Of course I'm crazy, but that doesn't mean I'm wrong.”

- Robert Anton Wilson
(18 Jan 1932 - 11 Jan 2007)
 

Partly due to the genre-blending nature of the song, it has been covered by dozens of artists in several genres over the years; Nevertheless, the song remains inextricably linked with Cline.

Nelson wrote the song in early 1961; at the time he was a journeyman singer-songwriter who had written several hits for other artists but had not yet had a significant recording of his own. Nelson originally wrote the song for country singer Billy Walker who turned it down for the same reason Roy Drusky turned down I Fall to Pieces the previous year - that it was ``a girl's song. The song's eventual success helped launch Nelson as a performer as well as a songwriter.

Musically the song is a jazz-pop ballad with country overtones and a complex melody. The lyrics describe the singer's state of bemusement at the singer's own helpless love for the object of his affection.

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.^[3]

According to the Ellis Nassour biography Patsy Cline, Nelson, who at that time was known as a struggling songwriter by the name of Hugh Nelson, was a regular at Tootsie's Orchid Lounge on Nashville's Music Row, where he frequented with friends Kris Kristofferson and Roger Miller, both unknown songwriters at that time. Nelson met Cline's husband, Charlie Dick, at the bar one evening and pitched the song to him. Dick took the track home and played it for Cline, who absolutely hated it at first because Nelson's demo "spoke" the lyrics ahead of and behind the beat, about which an annoyed Cline remarked that she ``couldn't sing like that.

However, Cline's producer, Owen Bradley, loved the song and arranged it in the ballad form in which it was later recorded. On Loretta Lynn's album I Remember Patsy Bradley reported that as Patsy was still recovering from a recent automobile accident that nearly took her life, she'd had difficulty reaching the high notes of the song on the original production night due to her broken ribs. So after about four hours of trying, in the days of four songs being recorded in three hours - they called it a night. A week later she came back and recorded the lead vocal we all know in one take.

On the same interview, Loretta remembers the first time Cline performed it at the Grand Ole Opry on crutches, and received three standing ovations. Barbara Mandrell remembers Cline introducing the song to her audiences live in concert saying "All my recent hits have come true in my life. I had a hit out called Tra-La-La Triangle and people thought about me and Gerald and Charlie. I had another hit out called 'I Fall to Pieces' and I was in a car wreck. Now I'm really worried because I have a new hit single out and its called 'Crazy'."

Willie Nelson stated on the 1993 documentary Remembering Patsy that Cline's version of "Crazy" was his favorite song of his that anybody had ever recorded because it "was a lot of magic."

  
    I do not believe        Captain Spriggs ('64 - of VA) served on USS Enterprise; he served on USS Spruance (DD 963) - which is not to say he would not be interested in obtaining this treasure. After Marcus hears from David, all other interested parties contact Marcus directly by email or phone for further details.

   As for    Carla Fine Cripps's ('65 of South Australia) JFK portrait,         Paul (Harty - Bardolph HS, IL - '61 - of NC) says if for some strange reason she does not want it, he would be extraordinarily interested in obtaining it!

   I've only seen the Christmas lights on Temple Square twice myself, in Salt Lake City in January of 1968, and at the Washington Temple in December of 2001, but they are unforgettably beautiful; glad y'all enjoyed those in Mesa!

   Thanks again, Marcus!

What hath the D.A.R.’s Merry Wright Wrought?

Posted: 03 Jan 2013 09:42 AM PST

God's Cake....

This is about the best thing I've ever read as an explanation.

Sometimes we wonder, 'What did I do to deserve this?' or 'Why did God have to do This to me?

Here is a wonderful Explanation!

A daughter is telling her mother how everything is going wrong, she's failing Algebra, her boyfriend broke up with her and her best friend is moving away.

Meanwhile, her mother is baking a cake and asks her daughter if she would like a snack, and the daughter says, 'Absolutely Mom, I love your cake.'

'Here, have some cooking oil,' her mother offers.

'Yuck' says her daughter.

'How about a couple raw eggs?'

'Gross, Mom!'

'Would you like some flour then? Or maybe baking soda?'

'Mom, those are all yucky!'

To which the mother replies: 'Yes, all those things seem bad all by themselves, but when they are put together in the right way, they make a wonderfully delicious cake!

God works the same way. Many times we wonder why He would let us go through such bad and difficult times.
But God knows that when He puts these things all in His order, they always work for good!
We just have to trust Him and, eventually, they will all make something wonderful!

God is crazy about you.
He sends you flowers every Spring and a sunrise every morning.
Whenever you want to talk, He'll listen.
He can live anywhere in the Universe, and He chose your heart.


Life may not be the party we hoped for,
but while we are here we might as well dance!

   Thanks so much, Ruthie!

   WOWZERONI-RINI! This is amazing! Thank you so much for sharing this fascinating video, Glenn!

P.S. : You're welcome at my watering hole anytime.
Life is short... forgive quickly, love truly, laugh uncontrollably... and never regret anything that made you smile.

   Thanks so much, Billy!