The Anthology (3CD SET)

Patsy Cline’s talent took her to the top of the country charts in the early Sixties, and her style and popularity have never waned despite her short singing career and its curtailment at the age of just 31. Patsy’s recording career is split exactly into two: 51 tracks were cut for Four Star Records between 1955 and 1960 and 51 for Decca between 1960 and 1963. Both labels are represented on this anthology.

Some of the earliest songs in this selection date from 1956 recording sessions for Four Star Records. Patsy’s contract limited her to recording songs written by their in-house team, a restriction she regretted. ‘I’ve Loved And Lost Again’, ‘He Will Do For You’, ‘The Heart You Break May Be Your Own’ and her first recording, ‘A Church, A Courtroom And Then Goodbye’, are some of the songs here dating from this period. Two of her best-known songs kick off CD1. ‘I Fall To Pieces’ took her to Number 1 in the country charts and, more importantly, Number 12 in the pop charts, making her a household name. However Patsy was involved in a car crash in 1961, shortly after son Randy was born, which meant a long stay in hospital preventing her from promoting her hit. She completed another pop/country crossover with Willie Nelson’s ‘Crazy’, which reached the Top 10 in both charts. Although Cline reportedly did not like the song originally, it is probably her best-known today.

Quite a few of the songs Patsy recorded she considered ‘too poppy’, but she was convinced to record them by her producer, who knew a hit when he saw one. One of Patsy’s personal favourites which appears here is ‘A Poor Man’s Roses’. She liked it so much that she recorded it twice, once in 1956 and again in 1961; the latter version is featured here. In late 1961 Patsy Cline recorded ‘She’s Got You’. As well as hitting both US charts in early 1962, it became her first entry in the UK singles listing. She then registered a string of smaller country hits, including the Top 10 ‘When I Get Thru With You’, ‘Imagine That’, ‘So Wrong’, and ‘Heartaches’; all can be heard here.