Patsy Cline's 'Walkin' After Midnight': The Song Its Writer Said Nobody Wanted

The story behind Patsy Cline's "Walkin' After Midnight", the song its lyricist said nobody wanted. On a Monday night in January 1957, a young singer from Virginia won a national TV talent show. The woman who brought her on as her "talent scout" was introduced by name, and she did not say the singer was her daughter. The song she sang was, in the words of its lyricist, a song nobody wanted, and by his account she once dismissed it as a little ole pop song. This is the story of that song, the bargain he remembered, and the scout who was not a stranger. Every fact in this film is sourced. Where the sources disagree, we say so on screen. Single-witness memories are credited to the person who told them. No lyrics are quoted. ⏱️ CHAPTERS 0:00 Introduction 0:49 Part One: The Song Nobody Wanted 3:18 Part Two: The Girl from Winchester 4:30 Part Three: The Bargain, as Hecht Told It 6:32 Part Four: Monday Night on CBS 8:45 Part Five: Whose Side Sold 10:50 Part Six: The Four-Year Wait 12:25 Sources 👕 Shop Hidden Track merch: https://the-hidden-track-shop.fourthw... ☕ Support Hidden Track on Buy Me a Coffee: https://buymeacoffee.com/thehiddentrack ⭐ Join Hidden Track on Patreon:   / thehiddentrack   📚 SHOP THE STORY (affiliate links; books marked "we used" are sources for this film) • Sweet Dreams: The World of Patsy Cline, ed. Warren R. Hofstra (book we used): https://amazon.com/s?k=sweet+dreams+t... • Ellis Nassour, Patsy Cline biography (book we used): https://amazon.com/s?k=ellis+nassour+... • Patsy Cline, 12 Greatest Hits (vinyl): https://amazon.com/s?k=patsy+cline+12... As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. SOURCES • U.S. Copyright Office, Catalog of Copyright Entries, Published Music, 1956 (Block; Hecht) • Billboard, 6 Oct 1956 and 2 Feb–27 Apr 1957 (reviews, Decca ads, charts) · Cash Box, 2 Feb–4 May 1957 • Ellis Nassour, Patsy Cline (1985): Don Hecht's account • Douglas Gomery, "A Television Star," and Jocelyn R. Neal, "Nothing But a Little Ole Pop Song," in Warren R. Hofstra (ed.), Sweet Dreams: The World of Patsy Cline (University of Illinois Press, 2013) • Country Music Hall of Fame, Patsy Cline · Encyclopedia Virginia, "Patsy Cline (1932–1963)" · Praguefrank's Country Discography, Patsy Cline • Mark Bego, I Fall to Pieces (1995) · Andy Rooney, Sincerely, Andy Rooney (1999), as quoted by Gomery • Recording Academy, Grammy Hall of Fame (2020) · National Register of Historic Places, Patsy Cline House (listed 2005) WHERE THE SOURCES DISAGREE (full notes in the comments; the film names the main ones) The sources differ on the bargain (it rests on Don Hecht's memory alone); who turned the song down first; which singer made Hecht's other record; who knew the scout was her mother; the release date; the date of the TV win (Cash Box printed 28 January); the familiar "No. 2 country, No. 12 pop" (both are juke-box charts); "sold a million" (a Decca ad, not a sales figure); and the session hours and producer credit. PHOTOGRAPHS (stand-ins are marked on screen) • A 1950s television set: Berit, CC BY 2.0 • Arthur Godfrey, 1947: Harry Warnecke / National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian (CC0) • A portable record player: r. nial bradshaw, CC BY 2.0 • A studio piano, museum exhibit, New Mexico: Greg Gjerdingen, CC BY 2.0 • A 1950s recording-studio exhibit, New Mexico: Greg Gjerdingen, CC BY 2.0 • A desk telephone: Daderot (CC0) • Winchester, Virginia, 2011: Sarah Stierch, CC BY 4.0 • The Cline family home, South Kent Street, Winchester: Sarah Stierch, CC BY 4.0 • A mid-1950s tape recorder: bobistraveling, CC BY 2.0 • A VU meter: Iainf, CC BY 2.5 • A 1947 jukebox: Paulo Philippidis, CC BY 2.0 • Ryman Auditorium, Nashville, 2005: Ryan Kaldari (CC0) • Public domain: Library of Congress (FSA/OWI photographs by Russell Lee, Arthur Rothstein, Marion Post Wolcott and John Vachon; Harris & Ewing; Historic American Buildings Survey); Tichnor Brothers postcards, Boston Public Library; Decca Records ads in Billboard and Cash Box (1957, 1961); Cash Box (1957); Catalog of Copyright Entries (1956); Radio-TV Mirror (1953); publicity and press photos of Patsy Cline, Kay Starr and Ferlin Husky. Every picture is credited on screen; stand-in pictures are marked there. Thumbnail: Patsy Cline, publicity photo (public domain). Narration and quoted words are read by synthetic (text-to-speech) voices; no real person's voice is imitated. The channel intro is AI-generated. Every other picture in this film is a real photograph or document; no AI images are used, and no real person is depicted by AI. No recordings or lyrics are used. Music: "Lonesome Waltz", an original AI-generated instrumental made with Flow Music. #PatsyCline #WalkinAfterMidnight #ClassicCountry #HiddenTrack #SongStories