Winners: JohnnyG and Dave
It was flower power night at the main street cafe and the questions focused on the 1960’s. You remember the 60’s – the era of tv westerns, james bond movies, and the early, wild years of rock and roll. We had a good crowd of players, including the return of a couple of old timers – Bobby Barcelona & JohnnyG. A special guest was that famous equestrian from Connecticut – Ms. Connie, who sailed all the way across Long Island sound to play with us. She is now running a bed & breakfast in Old Saybrook, on the CT shore, and hopes to see some of us as guests.
The game turned into a closely fought contest among a group of 6 players. Although Bobby Barcelona didn’t bring his A game, his sidekick JohnnyG was tough all night. The fact that there weren’t any sports questions was a big advantage for JohnnyG, who is more of a pop culture guy. Among the regulars, Driver Shea, Pluto, Miss Vicky, and Dave stayed close until the end when it came down to the ridiculous last question:
The Reason the Purple People Eater wouldn’t harm the songwriter: “I wouldn’t eat you cause …….. “you’re so tough””
And so Driver Shea, Miss Vicky and Pluto, all finished one back, along with Steve. Close, but no purple people eater. Dave hung in there to tie JohnnyG with 2 wrong.
Because it was flower power night some of the ladies went into their closets to find some of their hippy, dippy clothes from the 60’s and livened up the scene for us. Those were the days.
“Good Question!”: Who wrote Patsy Cline’s hit “Crazy”?
Answer: Willie Nelson
Nelson wrote the song in early 1961; at the time he was a journeyman singer-songwriter who had written several hits for other artists but had not yet had a significant recording of his own. Cline was already a country music superstar who was working to extend a string of hits. Nelson originally wrote the song for country singer Billy Walker, but Walker turned it down and Cline picked it as a follow up to her previous big hit “I Fall to Pieces“. The song was released in late 1961 and immediately became another huge hit for Cline, eventually becoming one of her signature tunes, and its success helped launch Nelson as a performer as well as a songwriter. This song as sung by Patsy Cline is #85 on Rolling Stone‘s list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.[3]
Musically the song is a jazz-pop ballad with country overtones. The complex melody suited Cline’s vocal talent perfectly and widened the crossover audience she had established with her prior hits. The lyrics describe the singer’s state of bemusement at the singer’s own helpless love for the object of his affection.
According to the Ellis Nassour biography Patsy Cline, Nelson, who at that time was known as a struggling songwriter by the name of Hugh Nelson, was a regular at Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge on Nashville’s Music Row, where he frequented with friends Kris Kristofferson and Roger Miller, both unknown songwriters at that time. Nelson met Cline’s husband, Charlie Dick, at the bar one evening and pitched the song to him. Dick took the track home and played it for Cline, who absolutely hated it at first because Nelson’s demo “spoke” the lyrics to a faster tempo than what Cline later recorded as a ballad. Cline’s producer, Owen Bradley, loved the song and arranged it as the ballad it was recorded as. Still recovering from a recent automobile accident that nearly took her life, Cline had difficulty reaching the high notes of the song at first due to her broken ribs, so she came back the next day to record the vocal, which she did in one take.
Loretta Lynn remembers the first time Cline performed it at the Grand Ole Opry on crutches, she received three standing ovations. Barbara Mandrell remembers Cline introducing the song to her audiences live in concert saying “I had a hit out called ‘I Fall to Pieces’ and I was in a car wreck. Now I’m really worried because I have a new hit single out and its called ‘Crazy’.”
Willie Nelson stated on the 1993 documentary Remembering Patsy that Cline’s version of “Crazy” was his favorite song of his that anybody had ever recorded because it “was a lot of magic.”
source: wikipedia
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