The Song: "I Fall to Pieces" (1961)
The Story: Few singers conveyed emotion the way Cline did, and this anguished ode to the pain of an ended love affair sounded like she’d torn her own heart out during the recording session.

Truth was, she hated the tune and didn’t want anything to do with it, but her record label was desperate for a hit and tricked her into believing she would be dropped if she didn’t record it. It became her first #1 single and stayed on the charts for an amazing 39 weeks.

Oddly enough, Cline found out it was a hit after she’d literally fallen to pieces herself. Songwriter Hank Cochran recalls, "Patsy had been in a bad car wreck. It almost killed her. She was in the hospital with her head wrapped with bandages. I told her, ‘You got yourself a pop hit, girl.’ I think she thought I was just fooling around. When she finally got good enough to look at the numbers, she just laid back and said, ‘Damn!’"