 As a songwriter and a performer,
Willie Nelson played a vital role in post-rock & roll country music.
Although he didn't become a star until the mid-'70s,
Willie Nelson spent the '60s writing songs that became hits for stars like
Ray Price ("Night Life"),
Patsy Cline ("Crazy"),
Faron Young ("Hello Walls"), and
Billy Walker ("Funny How Time Slips Away") as well as releasing a series of
records on Liberty and RCA that earned him a small, but devoted, cult following.
During the early '70s,
Willie Nelson aligned himself with
Waylon Jennings and the burgeoning outlaw country movement which made him
into a star in 1975. Following the crossover success of that year's The Red
Headed Stranger and "Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain,"
Willie Nelson was a genuine star, as recognizable in pop circles as he was to the
country audience; in addition to recording, he also launched an acting career in
the early '80s. Even when he was a star,
Willie Nelson never played it safe musically. Instead, he borrowed from a wide
variety of styles, including traditional pop, Western swing, jazz, traditional
country, cowboy songs, honky tonk, rock & roll, folk, and the blues, creating a
distinctive, elastic hybrid.
Willie Nelson remained at the top of the country charts until the mid-'80s, when
his lifestyle -- which had always been close to the outlaw clichés his music
flirted with -- began to spiral out of control, culminating in an infamous
battle with the IRS in the late '80s. During the '90s,
Willie Nelson's sales never reached the heights that he had experienced a decade
earlier, but he remained a vital icon in country music, having greatly
influenced the new country, new traditionalist, and alternative country
movements of the '80s and '90s as well as leaving behind a legacy of classic
songs and recordings.
Willie Nelson enjoyed his most successful year to date in 1978, as he charted with
two very dissimilar albums. Waylon and Willie, his first duet album with
Jennings, was a major success early in the year, spawning the signature song
"Mammas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys." Later in the year, he
released Stardust, a string-augmented collection of pop standards produced by
Booker T. Jones. Most observers believed that the unconventional album would
derail
Willie Nelson's career, but it unexpectedly became one of the most successful
records in his catalog, spending almost ten years in the country charts and
eventually selling over four million copies. After the success of Stardust,
Willie Nelson branched out into film, appearing in the Robert Redford movie The
Electric Horseman in 1979 and starring in Honeysuckle Rose the following year.
The latter spawned the hit "On the Road Again," which became another one of
Willie Nelson's signature songs.
Willie Nelson continued to have hits throughout the early '80s, when he had a major
crossover success in 1982 with a cover of
Elvis Presley's hit "Always on My Mind." The single spent two weeks at
number one and crossed over to number five on the pop charts, sending the album
of the same name to number two on the pop charts as well as quadruple-platinum
status. Over the next two years, he had hit duet albums with
Merle Haggard (1983's Poncho & Lefty) and
Jennings (1982's WWII and 1983's Take It to the Limit), while "To All the
Girls I've Loved Before," a duet with Latin pop star
Julio Iglesias, became another major crossover success in 1984, peaking at
number five on the pop charts and number one on the singles chart.
After the release of Across the Borderline,
Willie Nelson continued to work steadily, releasing at least one album a year and
touring constantly. In 1993, he was inducted into the Country Music Hall of
Fame, but by that time, he had already become a living legend for all country
music fans across the world. Signing to Island for 1996's Spirit, he resurfaced
two years later with the critically acclaimed Teatro, produced by
Daniel Lanois.
Willie Nelson followed up that success with the instrumental-oriented Night and Day
a year later; Me and the Drummer and Milk Cow Blues followed in 2000. The
Rainbow Connection, which featured an eclectic selection of old-time country
favorites, appeared in spring 2001.
Amazingly prolific as a recording artist,
Willie Nelson released Great Divide on Universal in 2002. A collection of his
early-'60s publishing demos for Pamper Music called Crazy: The Demo Sessions
came out on Sugar Hill in 2003. Later in 2003
Willie Nelson released Run That by Me One More Time, which reunited him with
Ray Price and kicked off a relationship with Lost Highway Records. It Always
Will Be and Outlaws and Angels both appeared on Lost Highway in 2004, followed
by the release of
Willie Nelson's long-delayed attempt at a country-reggae fusion, Countryman, also
on Lost Highway, in 2005. You Don't Know Me: The Songs of Cindy Walker arrived
the following year. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
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