“WALKIN’ AFTER MIDNIGHT” (WRITERS: DON HECHT–ALAN BROCK)
ARTIST: PATSY CLINE
RELEASED 1956 ON 7” 45 AND ON PATSY CLINE LP
Patsy Cline is a legendary artist who sits in the pantheon
of great singers. She could do it all—country, honky-tonk, rockabilly, pop,
standards, jazz and blues—in her own inimitable style. Her 1963 death in a
plane crash ended a career that would likely have produced further hits and an
interesting period of growth as music changed later in the decade.
She is remembered mostly for the hits she cut in the early
1960s, in which producer Owen Bradley set her plaintive vocals of pop-country
songs with middle-of-the-road string arrangements in an effort to make her music
more palatable to the masses.
This it did, but Bradley’s “countrypolitan” style also
rendered her work far less immediate, in my opinion. While later hits like
“She’s Got You,” “I Fall to Pieces,” “Crazy,” and “Faded Love” are superb songs
and among Cline’s great vocal performances, they’re also formulaic and pretty
much sound alike.
I’d like to revisit her first hit record, 1957’s “Walking
After Midnight.” This version, which reached #12 on Billboard‘s pop chart and #2 on its country chart, is not
remembered as it should be. This is largely because a far less interesting 1961
re-cut of the song is the version available for the last 50 years on the Patsy Cline’s Greatest Hits album.
Patsy Cline was just 14 years old when she dropped out of
high school. In 1947 she began singing, working her way up to daily radio
programs then signing with the small Four Star record label. She always
believed herself to be a country singer, although early tracks like “Three Cigarettes
in an Ashtray” make it clear that she was equally adept at nightclub jazz.
By 1956, she had even reached the stage of the Grand Ole
Opry—but enjoyed no hits. This changed, however, when she sang a new recording,
“Walkin’ After Midnight,” in early 1957 on Arthur Godfrey’s television show.
Cline, dressed in a fancy gown rather than her traditional cowgirl outfit,
received rapturous applause.
Decca Records, which had an arrangement with Four Star, rush-released
“Walkin’ After Midnight” and promoted it heavily. The song broke out immediately in the east and the south. At age 25, Patsy Cline was a
star, her first hit a fusion of full-throated vocals, a pop-styled torch song,
and an appealing, homespun country track.
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