It's a song I will sing forever and never grow tired of.
I'm not sure how old I was when I first heard Patsy Cline sing "I Fall To Pieces"...probably a teenager. I do know that it gave me that twinge in the gut feeling I always get when something really breaks my heart. And it's done that every time I've heard it - twice as bad when I sing it - since.
When I was 20 I spent a summer singing that song 3-4 times a day - dressed as Patsy Cline in a theme park show. Then I did it again the following summer. I probably sang it hundreds of times on that stage alone. But that wasn't enough. I probably sang it every Thursday in my weekly solo piano gig at Donn's Depot in Austin. I did that for 5 years. When I left I took the song me and have sung it at all kinds of gigs since. It's my Dad's favorite Patsy Cline song. It's perfectly-crafted. In it's brilliant conciseness...16 lines, 116 words - it puts words and music to that twinge. That pain you feel when someone has let you go but never lets you go.
Hank Cochran wrote "I Fall To Pieces" with Harlan Howard in 1961. Harlan died in 2002. Hank died yesterday morning. Along with Patsy - who could probably sing a tax return and make people cry - Harlan and Hank fueled my fire to sing and to write in a huge way. If I never wrote again and only sang songs those guys wrote forevermore I could be satisfied. They're that good. Thank you Patsy. Thank you Harlan. Thank you Hank. Hope you're all sitting around a jukebox somewhere smiling.