RIP Cindy Walker

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Don't know who she is? You'd be wrong about that:

Known for her romantic, sentimental, Western-flavored works, she wrote more than 500 recorded songs for an array of artists. Among them were Gene Autry ("Blue Canadian Rockies"), Roy Orbison ("Dream Baby [How Long Must I Dream]"), Bob Wills ("Cherokee Maiden," "Bubbles in My Beer"), Eddy Arnold, Ray Charles ("You Don't Know Me"), the Ames Brothers ("China Doll"), Hank Snow ("The Gold Rush Is Over") and Jim Reeves ("Distant Drums," "This Is It").

She also wrote "Barstool Cowboy From Old Barstow" for Spike Jones and the City Slickers.

Over the years, Walker, who typed her lyrics on a pink-trimmed manual typewriter, saw her songs recorded by artists as varied as Bette Midler and Michael Bublé. By the late 1980s, "You Don't Know Me," one of her best-known songs, had been recorded by more than 75 singers, including Arnold, Elvis Presley, Jerry Vale and Mickey Gilley.

This month, Willie Nelson, a fellow Texan, released "You Don't Know Me: The Songs of Cindy Walker," a tribute album of her songs.

"I loved her dearly and will miss her. And I'm glad that the music came out while she could still enjoy it," Nelson said in a statement.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 29 March 2006 18:58 (nineteen years ago)

Also, this is my kind of chutzpah:

In late 1940, the 22-year-old Walker accompanied her parents on a business trip to Los Angeles. They were driving down Sunset Boulevard, when she spotted the Crosby Building and asked her father to stop the car.

"I had decided that if I ever got to Hollywood, I was going to try to show Bing Crosby a song I had written for him called 'Lone Star Trail,' " she recalled in a 1988 interview with the Chicago Tribune. "My father said, 'You're crazy, girl,' but he stopped the car."

Walker grabbed her song-filled briefcase and went inside. A few minutes later, she ran back to the car to get her mother to play the piano for her: Crosby's brother, Larry, had agreed to listen to the song.

With her mother accompanying her, Walker sang "Lone Star Trail." Larry Crosby told her that Bing was looking for a Western song to record and might like it. The next day, she accompanied herself on the guitar and sang it for Bing at Paramount Studios, where he was making a movie.

Bing Crosby, who called her "Sis," liked the song, and the unknown songwriter from Texas made her first sale.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 29 March 2006 18:59 (nineteen years ago)

Wow, I didn't know any of this. I always figured "You Don't Know Me" was written by Hank Cochran or Harlan Howard or somebody like that. Shows what I know. RIP, Cindy.

― The Day The World Turned Dayglo Redd (Ken L), Wednesday, 29 March 2006 19:05 (nineteen years ago)

She wrote "Distant Drums"? Respect due.

― Robocock (noodle vague), Wednesday, 29 March 2006 19:34 (nineteen years ago)

Wow, RIP, bad/good timing on Willie's part.

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Wednesday, 29 March 2006 19:42 (nineteen years ago)

also, what a fox!

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Wednesday, 29 March 2006 19:43 (nineteen years ago)

Wow. She's seems to have been some kind of honky-tonk Emily Dickinson.

― The Day The World Turned Dayglo Redd (Ken L), Wednesday, 29 March 2006 19:52 (nineteen years ago)

RIP Cindy! Didn't know I knew ya!

― TRG (TRG), Wednesday, 29 March 2006 19:56 (nineteen years ago)

also, what a fox!

You said it:

http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2006-03/22670260.jpg

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 29 March 2006 19:59 (nineteen years ago)

Hm. Looks like in fact Harlan Howard himself said she was "the greatest living songwriter of country music."

― The Day The World Turned Dayglo Redd (Ken L), Thursday, 30 March 2006 14:17 (nineteen years ago)

Damn. Can't get much higher praise than that!

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 30 March 2006 14:20 (nineteen years ago)

I listened to "Dream Baby (How Long Must I Dream)" by Orbison about a dozen times last night. It's so weird and ethereal and awesome and beautiful (though the production plays a big role).

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Thursday, 30 March 2006 14:26 (nineteen years ago)

RIP. I didn't realise she'd written all these great songs. Bubbles In My Beer is a favourite. Buck and Cindy gone in the same week. This has been a really shitty month.

― stew!, Thursday, 30 March 2006 14:36 (nineteen years ago)

I didn't realise she'd written all these great songs.

You're not alone, I must confess. I'm glad to see she was often recognized when alive (Willie's being but the latest and last such sign), but I'm also annoyed at, well, life for never giving her more of her due in terms of currency and name recognition in general.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 30 March 2006 14:40 (nineteen years ago)

I'm sure she got her share of currency currency (not that I begrudge her of it in the least).

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Thursday, 30 March 2006 14:56 (nineteen years ago)

Maybe she was unknown in the rock world, but she's been in the Country Music Hall of Fame, the highest honor in that field, since 1997.

David Cantwell's new blog has a good post, including some mp3s of "You Don't Know Me", which you can check out here: http://livinginstereo.com/?p=84

― Roy Kasten (Roy Kasten), Thursday, 30 March 2006 14:58 (nineteen years ago)

"Blue Canadian Rockies"!

Wow. No idea. She sounds awesome. Is that Willie Nelson tribute worth picking up?

― A|ex P@reene (Pareene), Thursday, 30 March 2006 14:59 (nineteen years ago)

I like the Willie album--a lot. It swings western style, with Johnny Gimble's fiddle, Buddy Emmons' steel and Fred Foster's production.

― Roy Kasten (Roy Kasten), Thursday, 30 March 2006 15:26 (nineteen years ago)

"Blue Canadian Rockies" is only one of the best songs ever written, She also wrote "Born to Love You"

― Dadaismus Is A Very Magic Fellow (Dada), Thursday, 30 March 2006 15:32 (nineteen years ago)

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