Since becoming infatuated with "I Fall To Pieces", I've been minded to buy some kind of Patsy Cline best of; finally came to it a couple of days ago, and, I have to say, it makes me happy that I did so. The music sounds inescapably retro, of course, but I think that may be part of the appeal for me; also, while Cline's usually spoken of as a country singer (having been affiliated with Nashville et al), I hear a fair amount of the contemporaneous sixties girl-group pop sound in these songs (apparently the story is that, for one reason and another, she didn't really hit her straps until the sixties, whereupon she had three or so years of glory before dying in a plane crash in '63).
Set off nicely by the retro feel is the swooning romanticism of these songs and Cline's delivery of them. She invests her material with such feeling, and, taken with her crystalline voice, it's easy to see why people rate her as a truly great singer. It may be deeply unfashionable today to sing in such a clear-toned, heartfelt fashion, but, having finally made my way to a point where I can appreciate and feel her singing, I'm inclined to think that the music made by this one just may be a bit timeless.
