A compilation of never-before-released recordings by country music legend Patsy Cline includes two original recordings found in a basement after 30 years.
Most of the songs on “Imagine That: The Lost Recordings (1954-1963)” – out Saturday for Record Store Day – were recorded in D.C. and Virginia.
The singer from Winchester, Virginia, only recorded a few albums before she died in a tragic plane crash in 1963, but her songs and vocal style remain mainstays of country and popular music more than 60 years later.
“The Lost Recordings” includes 48 unreleased songs from concerts and TV and radio appearances.
We've got the news you need to know to start your day. Sign up for the First & 4Most morning newsletter — delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up here.
“It's just like she's alive again,” said her daughter, Julie Fudge. “It is really, very personal. And I'm just so impressed with the work that these people did and so glad that we trusted them to do this.”
Fudge said the recordings are unlike any of her mother’s studio recordings.
“She's in her early 20s and she's singing in front of people live,” she said. “And so, it really does have a personal feel when you listen to it. It's like sitting in a room and talking to somebody.”
Two of the oldest songs were recorded in Arlington at the old WARL radio station. The songs were taken from the original acetate disc that had been sitting in a box in Marc Zitelman’s basement for more than 30 years.
“There's two sides,” he said. “There's an A side and a B side. And as you can see in the label, it was just typed up in the front office while the engineer was recording this from a live presentation.”
Zitelman found the disc in a box of records he got from his father’s restaurant, Bassin’s, which was a popular downtown night spot for decades. He’s not sure how his dad got the disc but thinks it probably had been in the restaurant since 1954.
Other songs in “The Lost Recordings” were uncovered by the late Joe Lee of Joe’s Record Paradise. They’re from the old Don Owens TV show.
“I'm just so grateful to these people who had the foresight to hang on to these things or to even have them in the beginning,” Fudge said.
“I think the thing is that it's finally found its way into perpetuity,” Zitelman said. “So, I'm actually really thrilled that this is now in a place where forever it can be heard, and it's something I don't think was ever heard before.”
The collection also includes one of the last known recordings Cline made just weeks before she died: the gospel standard “Just a Closer Walk with Thee.”
The collection also includes live performances of Cline’s biggest hits, like “Crazy,” “I Fall to Pieces” and “Walkin’ After Midnight.”
