Blue is a song that reverberates with many 90s listeners as it was a phenomenal hit when it was released in 1996, winning both a Grammy Award and a Country Music Award.
However, given that the song was written in the 60s and had many versions, people are often unsure who sang it. So, did Patsy Cline sing the song Blue?
No. Patsy Cline didn’t sing the song Blue despite the fact that Bill Mack wrote it for her. After she died without ever recording the song, several artists released their versions, but the 1996 version recorded by LeAnn Rimes became the most prominent.
Why Didn’t Patsy Cline Sing Blue?
Patsy Cline was without a doubt one of the most influential singers in the 20th century, with terrific vocals that moved fans for generations, but in reality, she didn’t sing the song Blue.
While many may assume that she is the one who sang it, given the similarities in her voice to LeAnn Rimes, Patsy Cline died in a plane crash before she could perform it.
It was written in the early ’60s by Bill Mack, and Cline had a chance to record it but couldn’t do it for some reason prior to her passing in 1963.
Although Bill Mack repeatedly said that he didn’t write it for Patsy Cline, in his autobiography Bill Mack’s Memories, he debunked the fact and implied that she was the singer that came to his mind when he wrote it.
Who Is the Original Singer of This Influential Song “Blue?”
Since Blue was written in the early 1960s, there have been a few iterations of the song by various singers starting in 1966. Initially, the song was recorded by Kenny Roberts, the famed American country singer from Tennessee.
Following its release in 1966, Blue was revised a couple of times and was even reissued by Starday, but it was not enough to make it popular, so that version is not as prevalent these days as well.
In the late 1980s, the song was again recorded by another famous singer, Polly Stephens Exley from Fort Worth. However, she was met with copyright infringement for rewriting another verse of Blue.
With negotiations going on for a decade, she eventually re-recorded the song in 1998 after gaining a copyright transfer, but it was not enough to make it the most popular version.
LeAnn Rimes, who was only 11 years old in 1994, took interest in Blue after hearing it from a tape received by her father, Wilbur, but she later re-recorded it in 1996 for her debut album named Blue.
Prior to her recording, nobody knew it would become one of the most iconic songs in history, and surely enough, the song became a major hit, reaching #1 on Canadian Country RPM and #26 on Billboard Hot 100.
Rimes and Mack each won a Grammy that year, one for her beautiful vocals and the other for writing such a fantastic song. While this version was more popular, Rimes recorded a third version in 2011 for her other album, The Time Jumpers.
Even though three different singers have attempted recording Blue, many remember LeAnn Rimes as the original singer of Blue. If only Patsy Cline had a chance to sing it, it would have been history.
So, did you listen to all three versions of Blue? Who do you think sang it better?
