The B12 (XII) Forum, home of the 'Front Porch, y'all' at College Football Fan Site, CFB51!!!

I was ok with Neil Diamond as a kid, but I didn't fully appreciate him until I was a lot older. I have a good friend who's the lead singer in a Neil Diamond tribute band (named "Diamondbag") and I didn't know even 1/4 of the catalog until I started listening to his band play, over the years.  "Forever in Blue Jeans" and "Kentucky Woman" are great tunes that I didn't know at all.

"Forever in Blue Jeans" and "Kentucky Woman" are great tunes that I didn't know at all.

Deep Purple covered Kentucky Woman.  Prince fans wouldn't know that.

I like African Trilogy by N D


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91KzVFIkaBw

I do too, 320.  He was cooking with gas on Taproot Manuscript.

I didn't know Willie Nelson wrote that song.  My musical collection includes two albums from Willie--Red Headed Stranger and Stardust.  Neither of those had "Crazy" on it.

I like Willie's recording of it a lot.  It's different enough from Patsy's version that it matters.  But I've heard Patsy's version so often that it's hard for Willie's to seem (to me) to be the better take.  Willie seems bemused at what has happened, while Patsy sounds heartbroken.  I'm used to it sounding heartbreaking, but maybe bemusement works better with a male singer.

And then there's this. Wikipedia--the Font of All Wisdom and Knowledge--has Patsy's version coming out as a single in Oct 1961 and Willie's version appearing in his debut album . . . And Then I Wrote in 1962.

So, is Patsy's version the cover, or is Willie's?  Or does TFOAWAK have the story wrong?

Wow, leave it to CWS to take an innocuous point I make, and turn it into a controversy.  I have to give it to you-- you've still got it!!!

Since the only way Patsy could have heard it, is if Willie recorded it, then I'm going to go ahead and give him the credit here.  But it's true that he didn't record a released version of it, until after she did.  Indeed, he and his representation sent it to her and asked her to record and release it.  You know, after he'd already written it.  And recorded it.  So that other people could hear it.  And perhaps record it too.  She was certainly a much bigger name at the time than he was. Which is how the business worked then.

If you weren't aware that Willie wrote "Crazy" then I think you might be really surprised at how many big hits were written by Willie in the early 60s, but released and made famous by others. Here are a few:

"Hello Walls" -- written by Willie, made famous by Faron Young in 1961
"Three Days" -- written by Willie, also made famous by Faron Young in 1961
"Crazy" -- written by Willie, made famous by Patsy Cline in 1961
"Funny How Time Slips Away" -- written by Willie, recorded and made famous by Billy Walker, and then later Jimmy Elledge, both in 1961.  But basically everyone has covered this one, form Perry Como to the Supremes to Ricky Nelson to Elvis to George Jones to Al Green and even Dave Matthews
"Night Life" -- written by Willie, made famous by Ray Price (and also Doris Day) in 1963
"Pretty Paper" -- written by Willie, made famous by Roy Orbison in 1963
"One Day at a Time" -- written by Willie, first recorded by Bobby Bare in 1965, but possibly biggest/most famous by Joan Baez in 1970

Well, I didn't suggest that Patsy Cline recorded "Crazy" before Willie Nelson wrote it.

I don't think that it necessarily follows that Willie recorded it first, or that Patsy Cline heard Willie's recording, although it certainly seems possible, maybe even likely.  If you say that's what happened, I have no reason to dispute it, but your account seems more like a supposition than a firm assertion.  It's no skin off my nose either way.

About those other songs--I never heard of 'em.  Except for one.  I may have heard "Funny How Time Slips Away" by somebody.  Not Billy Walker, though.  But it seems familiar.  I may have heard Joan Baez' recording of "One Day at a Time," although it doesn't really sound familiar.

My knowledge of early '60s C&W is spotty to say the least.  I didn't get semi-interested in that sort of music until the mid-'70s at about the same time I discovered Hank Williams.  I remember seeing Willie Nelson albums from that period in used record racks.  Clean-shaven Willie.  Early Dolly Parton albums in the same racks.  And a bunch of guys whose names I didn't recognize.  Maybe Roy Orbison, whom I knew for "Pretty Woman" and nothing else.  Didn't ever buy any of those records, though.

I still don't know much about that music.  Once I get past Marty Robbins, whom I liked for his "Gunfighter Ballads" recordings, Hank Williams who was dead by then, Tennessee Ernie Ford, and Merle Travis, I'm in no-man's land.  I don't dislike it; I just don't know it and have never spent the time necessary to learn it.

So, what's the definition of the "original recording"?  First recorded or first released?  Is there a dead-solid way of knowing when an unreleased recording was made?

Anyway, here's another great "cover" by the artist who wrote it, that I prefer over the version of the artist who is best known for it:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-J7mLyD3yc