Honky Tonk Angel (63 page)

“During hard times, Patsy could be dying on the inside, but when she went onstage and took that microphone in her hand, a smile came across her face. There’s no doubt her talent was God-given. When she sang songs like ‘Faded Love,’ the emotion was so real she made me cry.”

Interest among fans hasn’t abated. There’s no end to discussions of how Randy Hughes’s plane crashed, what Patsy was wearing at Dyersburg, what their hurry was to get to Nashville, why film from the movie Patsy and Dottie made or more TV-show footage hasn’t been discovered.

Some speculate that Charlie is hiding a stash of photographs. However, he’s said family photos and mementoes were destroyed due to water damage after a pipe rupture. Others think Mrs. Hensley had never-released recordings.

In 2007, CMT Television reported on a 1963 press release from PR Wire International:

Best laid plans. Sadly, that didn’t happen. If only it had.

Patsy Cline was wrested away much too soon. She endures as a great artist not because of her tragic death at an early age, but because she’s the key, the link to a fabulous past. As long as we have her music, Patsy lives inside of us, immortal.

O
nly three of Patsy Cline’s albums were released during her lifetime:
Patsy Cline
(Decca 8611), August 5, 1957;
Showcase
with the Jordanaires (Decca 4202), November 27, 1961; and
Sentimentally Yours
(Decca 4282), August 6, 1962.

Following her death, on June 16, 1963, Decca released
The Patsy Cline Story
(Decca K88-7176), complete with a handsome gatefold biographical sketch and photos. It contained the hits “Walkin’ After Midnight”; “I Fall to Pieces”; “Crazy”; “She’s Got You”; Patsy’s January 1963 single “Leavin’ on Your Mind,” cut September, 1962, which had made it into the country top-10; and “Sweet Dreams,” from the February 1963 and last sessions. The latter had been released as a single April 15, 1963, and climbed to number 5 on the
Billboard
country chart. There were two additional cuts from the September 1962 sessions, “Back in Baby’s Arms” and “Tra Le La Le La Triangle”; and sixteen previously released tunes.

A Portrait of Patsy Cline
(Decca 4508) was released November 2, 1964. On March 13, 1967, Decca issued
Patsy Cline’s Greatest Hits
(Decca 4854).

Since then, there have been numerous albums from Decca, its budget label Vocalion, and parent MCA Records, which eliminated the Decca imprint in 1970; as well as repackagings of Patsy’s Four-Star songs from such budget labels as Nashville’s Hilltop, which leased their LPs to Pickwick International, and other compilations on Accord, Allegiance, Design, Hallmark, Highland, Roller Skate, Sears, Roebuck special products, and VJ International.

Because of Britain’s Decca Records label, Patsy’s product in the United Kingdom was on the Coral label.

The Everest albums in the following list contain only Patsy’s Four-Star material.

Upon release of
Coal Miner’s Daughter,
MCA reissued Patsy’s early and later material, some of it remastered, in restyled packages or using original Decca art.

The Patsy Cline Collection
(MCA 4-10421), compiled by the Country Music Foundation and released in October 1991 by MCA Records, is a four-compact disc or tape cassette boxed set containing 104 of Patsy’s recordings, radio transcriptions,
and live performances, such as her December 1961 Atlanta “Dixie Jubilee” appearance. It features a sixty-four-page souvenir booklet with photographs, remembrances, and information on Patsy’s recording sessions, along with personnel used by producer Owen Bradley. In the following history of Patsy’s recording sessions, all songs
except
“Ain’t No Wheels on This Ship,” “Cry Not for Me,” “Dear God,” “Fingerprints,” “He Will Do It for Me,” “Hidin’ Out,” “I Cried All the Way to the Altar,” “Stop the World and Let Me Off,” and “Walking Dream” are in this set.

ALBUMS THAT FOLLOWED
(with original record numbers)

Of posthumously released Patsy Cline product, the following comprise songs that Patsy sang live at the Opry or “manufactured” duets:

Concurrent with their U.S. release and distribution, Patsy Cline singles and albums were released in Australia, Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, South Africa, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom.

There have been numerous compilation albums that include one or more previously released Patsy Cline tracks. Of interest:

THE RECORDING SESSIONS