Cline: an eternal star, 61 years after her death

The music world has plenty of people who flash and fade, who soar and then sag.
But occasionally, it has someone whose work seems eternal. That includes Patsy Cline, the subject of a PBS concert at 9 p.m. Friday (Nov. 25), under the “Great Performances” banner. (Shown here is one of the performers, Grace Potter, at a previous evet.)
“The fact that we’re here, 61 years after her passing, is a testament” to her impact, Julie Fudge — who is Cline’s daughter and a producer of the special — told the Television Critics Association.
Yes, 61 years. On March 5, 1963, Cline died in a plane crash. She was 30, with a husband, a daughter and son (ages 4 and 2) and a rising career.
“When she passed, she was just another female artist,” Fudge said.
At least, that’s what people thought then. Six of her singles had reached the country top-10, including two at No. 1 (“I Fall to Pieces” and “She’s Got You”) and two at No. 2 “Walkin’ After Midnight” and “Crazy”). Those four also crossed over into overall top-15.
But later, her impact took off. Cline was at the core of two movies, two TV films, two theater pieces and several tributes and documentaries. Singers called her an influence – which made it easy to line them up for the special.
“I had to stop asking people, because artists were coming out of the woodwork, wanting to participate,” said producer Barbara Hall,.
The show includes 18 female singers. Some are country stars – Wynonna (doing “Crazy” and “Sweet Dreams”), Mickey Guyton, Kellie Pickler, Ashley McBryde, Crystal Gayle and Pam Tillis (doing “So Wrong,” which her dad co-wrote). Others are from other fields, including Pat Benatar, Kristin Chenoweth, Natalie Grant and actresses Rita Wilson and Beverly D’Angelo..
There’s also Mandy Barnett, the frequent star of the stage musical “Always … Patsy Cline.” And Grace Potter, who has done Patsy tribute shows.
“I just love the way her voice hung on your bones like an apron,” Potter said.
It was a deep, rich voice that resonated emotion and defied description.
“She was a jazz singer,” said David Horn, head of “Great Performances.”
“She was a rockabilly singer at one point,” Fudge said.
“Patsy always wanted to growl,” D’Angelo said. She was “singing rock and roll in ‘61.”
Cline grew up in Virginia, with a supportive mom (who often made her stage clothes) and a dad who left when she was in her early teens. That was about when she started performing — on radio (at 15) and anywhere else, including the top of the concession stand at a drive-in theater.
At about 24, she was on TV, on “Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts.” She was the night’s winner, singing “Walkin’ After Midnight” – which became a hit.
Nothing else stuck, however, until three years latrer, when she went with a different record label and producer Owen Bradley.
“Part of how stunning her voice was had to do with the pioneering that Owen was doing,” D’Angelo said. That developed her “bell-like quality.’
They started with “I Fall to Pieces”; then came a fierce car crash. Cline was back at the Grand Ole Opry six weeks later; soon, she was recording “Crazy.”
One point in the song was so emotional, D’Angelo said, that she thought Cline was cryiug. Bradley “said no, her ribs hurt …. She hadn’t even recovered enough to be able to take the deep breath that she intended.”
But she pushed on. That was “the defiant nature Patsy,” Potter said.
Pain and all, the song became a classic. The CMT cable channel listed it as the third-best country song of all time, trailing only “Stand By Your Man” and “He Stopped Loving Her Today.”
Cline had more hits; then came the plane crash. Her kids lived briefly with their grandmother, then with their dad.
Fudge says she grew up on rock music – from the Beatles to ZZ Top – but was also a fan of her mom’s music. The public was starting to forget Cline, she said, “until 1980, when ‘Coal Miner’s Daughter’ came out.
It was Loretta Lynn’s story, but Cline (played by D’Angelo) was key. Five years later, “Sweet Dreams” starred Jessica Lange, lip-syncing Cline’s songs.
Both films were from the same writer, but the latter surprised Cline’s family by showing her husband as abusive. His reaction to the film, Fudge said, was: “It’s okay, if you like fiction.”
He was, she said, a good person and good father. As he slowed down, she became more involved in her mom’s estate.
The Patsy Cline Museum opened in Nashville in 2015,”ironically, the year my father died,” Fudge said. By then, there were stage shows, documentaries and more, describing a crazy life of sweet dreams and big triumphs.