A Bite of Patsy Cline 🍪
The voice that was the soundtrack to my family's time together
Monday Bites are bite-sized musician spotlights & playlists by Grace Lilly.
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• 3 min read •
She sounds like home
Whenever I hear Patsy Cline’s voice, I think of my family. We’re from the mountains and prairies, Colorado and Kansas, so Western music is in our blood.
It was the soundtrack to our time together. I have so many memories of listening to Patsy Cline at my grandparents’ house — cooking dinner, cleaning the house, relaxing together. And every year at Christmas, my mom would get out her giant boombox and put on Patsy Cline as we decorated the tree.
Patsy’s voice always gave me goosebumps. It’s so absurdly smooth and strong, it almost hurts. It’s overwhelming. You can feel her with each note she sings.
Patsy Cline
The basics
🤝 American singer
🤝 b. 1932 (Virginia) - d. 1963 (Tennessee)
🤝 One of the first country music artists to cross over into pop music
Why you should know her: She was one of the most influential, celebrated, and respected performers of the 20th century
"She is to country music what Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday are to jazz or what Aretha Franklin is to soul." — Callie Khouri
If you like
✨ Willie Nelson
✨ Dolly Parton
✨ Amy Winehouse
✨ Billie Eilish
✨ Adele
Known for
🏆 Her smooth-sounding, emotive voice; proudly outspoken and bold
🏆 A forerunner for women in country music, among the first to sell records and headline concerts
🏆 Breaking gender norms by becoming the first woman to wear pants on stage at the Grand Ole Opry; didn't believe women in her field — or anyplace else in society — needed to be submissive or demure
🏆 The first female performer to be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame (1973)
🏆 Being supportive of other female country artists and trying to help them with their careers
Bite-sized facts
🍪 Had perfect pitch and taught herself how to play the piano when she was 8 years old
🍪 Her first professional performances started at local radio station WINC when she was 15
🍪 Dropped out of school when she was 16 to go to work because her family desperately needed the money; worked at a poultry plant and a local soda shop
🍪 Survived a traumatic car crash as her first single was topping the charts; was severely injured and spent a month in the hospital
🍪 Performed with Johnny Cash, joining his tour in the early 1960s
🍪 Was best friends with Loretta Lynn a.k.a. the “Coal Miner's Daughter;” the two singers were born just five months apart in 1932 and forged a close friendship that was cut short by Cline's untimely death in a 1963 plane crash
Songs & dates
♫ 1954 Gets her first recording contract with the label Four Star
♫ 1957 Makes her first national television appearance on Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts; after performing “Walkin' After Midnight,” the single became her first major hit on both the country and pop charts
♫ 1961 Her single "I Fall to Pieces" becomes her first to top the Billboard country chart; it also became a Top 20 single on the pop charts
♫ 1962 Hits the number one spot on the country charts with "She's Got You”
She said
⭐ “The one thing I wanted to do more than anything else was sing country music.”
⭐ “You're gonna have to learn to get out there in front of those cameras and hold your head up.”
⭐ “I recorded a song called ‘I Fall to Pieces,’ and I was in a car wreck. Now I'm worried because I have a brand-new record, and it's called ‘Crazy!’”
⭐ “I can't miss a night's work and let my public down.”
My Patsy Playlist
I gathered my fav Patsy songs, from me to you with love. Save on Spotify and listen all week 💗
Where to start
Performing “Three Cigarettes in an An Ashtray”
Singing her 1957 single, released on the heels of her first hit "Walkin' After Midnight"
〰️
How Patsy broke social norms in the '50s
Cline walked her own path, wearing men's pants and bright red lipstick
Down the rabbit hole
If you wanna dive even deeper:
Sweet Dreams (1985)
Jessica Lange stars in this biopic of Patsy Cline, the gifted, passionate queen of the Nashville sound.
🍿 Watch on Max, Youtube, or Amazon
🍅 90% on Rotten Tomatoes
Latest diary entry 🤫
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