Twice as much

It's amazing what a great interpreter can do with a great song. The other night I was overcome as I listened to Patsy Cline's recording of the great Hank Williams ditty "Half As Much." It's a wonderful tune, an exemplar of a particular kind of wittily forlorn country song. (Willie Nelson also specializes in writing these.) The subject, it would seem, is fourth-grade arithmetic, fractions in particular: "If you loved me half as much as I loved you, you wouldn't worry me half as much as you do." But there, embedded in that deceptively simple couplet, is the agonizing plight of (what Hank Williams almost certainly never called) codependence.

While I love the original recording by Williams, and there is no denying that he was one of the great singers, his bouncy arrangement and twangy belting emphasize the wryness of the lyrics at the expense of their pathos. Cline, on the other hand, slows things down and wrings every bit of sadness out of those words. She still conveys warmth and humor, however, in a way that, say, Marlene Dietrich probably would not.

Tony Bennett found many of the same notes in his memorable take, but Cline's version is the definitive one, to my way of thinking. Perhaps I could do without the harmonica.

Hank Williams, "Half As Much"
Patsy Cline, "Half As Much"