Ray Price - Crazy Arms

Image via el Wik

You know the saying that everyone ends up playing with Willie Nelson?  Willie came by that honestly, learning it from Ray Price.  In the early 1950s when he first moved to Nashville, he was roommates with Hank Williams, Sr.  When Hank dies, Ray took over running the band, and then formed his own.  Future stars that played in that band included Willie, Roger Miller, and Johnny Paycheck.

Price was perhaps the textbook Honky Tonk sound, and Crazy Arms is a song that you'll still hear played by basically every country Honky Tonk band.  Good for a Two Step, if that's your bag, baby.  This style of music was very popular in the 1950s, and he had a dozen top ten songs during that decade.  This one from 1956 hit number 1.

Interestingly, he only released two albums in the '50s, focusing on singles.



But the public's tastes were changing, and Price made a serious turn around to keep his success.  The Honky Tonk was pushed to the back burner, and his new Nashville Sound gave his career a second wind.  The contrast is quite striking, but led to 3 more number 1 singles and a couple of number 1 albums in the 1970s.



Price kept touring and recording through the last decade.  He just passed away from cancer.  R.I.P. Ray.  Thanks for the fun music.

Crazy Arms (songwriters: Ralph Mooney, Charles Seals)

Now, blue ain't the word for the way that I feel,
There's a storm brewin' in this heart of mine.
This ain't no crazy dream, I know that it's real.
You're someone else's love now, you're not mine!

Crazy arms that seek to hold somebody new,
But my burnin' heart keeps sayin' you're not mine!
My troubled mind knows soon to another you'll be wed,
And that's why I'm lonely all the time.

Please take these treasured dreams I had for you and me,
And take all the love I thought was mine,
This ain't no crazy dream, I know that it's real,
And that's why I'm lonely all the time!

Crazy arms that seek to hold somebody new,
But my burnin' heart keeps sayin' you're not mine!
My troubled mind knows soon to another you'll be wed,
And that's why I'm lonely all the time.