The late, great Patsy Cline had the kind of voice that could cut right down to the bone in the best kind of way. The country-pop crossover artist had a way of capturing melancholy that was almost soothing because of its beauty, making her collection of breakup songs some of the best in either genre. Some of her biggest hits, like her renditions of Willie Nelson’s “Crazy” or “Walkin’ After Midnight”, were about lost love and heartache.
But we’d argue these four breakup songs by Patsy Cline are even better.
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“Three Cigarettes In An Ashtray”
Patsy Cline released this heart-wrenching breakup song, “Three Cigarettes In An Ashtray”, as a single from her eponymous debut album in 1957. Written by Eddie Miller and W.S. Stevenson, the song describes two lovers drifting apart through the imagery of an ashtray that starts with two cigarettes and ends with three, indicating that the object of the song’s heartache has left her for another. This song got overlooked in the shadow of her monumental success, “Walkin’ After Midnight”, but this writer would argue “Three Cigarettes” is Cline at her best.
“She’s Got You”
When Patsy Cline first learned “She’s Got You” by Hank Cochran, the songwriter was sitting in Cline’s kitchen as she cooked dinner with Dottie West. After asking Cochran to sing it several times through, Cline picked up the lead, bringing herself and West to tears. Cline knew right away that the song was a hit, recording it the following week and releasing it in January 1962. And indeed, it’s hard to find a comparable match to Cline’s desolation as she sings, “The only thing different, the only thing new / I’ve got your picture, she’s got you.”
“The Wayward Wind”
“Wayward Wind”, from Patsy Cline’s second album, Showcase, is the kind of breakup song that sneaks up on you. The melody sounds distinctly Western, with imagery of restless winds and rumbling train cars. Toward the middle of the song, the narrator reveals that the wayward wind she’s singing about is a man she met in a border town who left her. In a strange way, Cline’s contemplative vocal delivery suggests the narrator, though heartbroken, understood that a man like the one she’s singing about would have never stayed in the first place.
“Half As Much”
Realizing that someone you love doesn’t care as much about you is a devastating blow. And Patsy Cline certainly captures this confusing blend of frustration, sorrow, and longing in the way she sings her 1962 track, “Have As Much”. “If you loved me half as much as I love you / You wouldn’t worry me half as much as you do.” On higher lines, Cline almost cries out the melody, adding even more emotion to an already crushing breakup song. Though other renditions, like the original by Hank Williams or the subsequent cover by Rosemary Clooney, might be more ubiquitous, that’s not to say they express these feelings more accurately.
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