Loretta Lynn, Dolly Parton, Tammy Wynette, and Patsy Cline harmonized on a song together in 1993. While Lynn, Parton, and Wynette went into the studio to record their parts, Cline had, at that point, been dead for 30 years. The three sang along to Cline’s original recording of the song. Lynn, who had been friends with Cline, worried this would irritate her from beyond the grave.

Loretta Lynn thought Patsy Cline would resent a song she recorded with Dolly Parton

In 1993, Lynn, Parton, and Wynette teamed up for the album Honky Tonk Angels. Producer Steve Buckingham said they wanted to revisit the country music of several decades past.

“We were just doing country music the way everybody remembered country music,” he said, per the book Smart Blonde by Stephen Miller.

While Lynn, Parton, and Wynette were big enough names to bring in listeners, Buckingham also wanted the album to feature other artists. Kitty Wells sang on one song, and they harmonized over Cline’s recording of Hank Williams’ “Lovesick Blues.” Lynn worried about what Cline might have thought of that. The two had been friends. 

“I feel like Patsy’s gonna come back and haunt us,” she admitted.

She recalled the difficulty of recording ‘Honky Tonk Angels’

When Parton worked with Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt on their Trio albums, they ran into problems with scheduling. Lynn, Parton, and Wynette found themselves in a similar position.

“We were together long enough to get our songs picked out, and we had a good time while we were doing that,” Lynn said. “But then it got right down to the nitty-gritty … I was heading for Branson. Dolly, she was in Hollywood doing something. Tammy was in the hospital. So that separated us.”

Lynn recorded her parts of the album and decided to leave it up to Parton to pick the takes that she liked best.

“So I went in and sung 22 songs five times — didn’t hear em back — and did the harmony on all the choruses,” she said. “When I left, I said, ‘Tell Dolly to take me off wherever she wants me off, and put her harmony on.’ I just did the best I could do, and I left.”

Loretta Lynn and Patsy Cline were very close

Lynn and Cline were country music stars long before Parton broke out on the scene. They became fast friends as women in a male-dominated genre.

“Me and Patsy bonded close as sisters,” Lynn wrote in her book Me & Patsy Kickin’ Up Dust. “As time has gone on, I haven’t stopped loving Patsy or thinking about her or talking to her, even. Not for one single day. She changed my life forever.”

Cline died in a plane crash in 1963 when she was just 30 years old. This came as a terrible shock to Lynn, but she always felt that Cline was still with her.

“Patsy hadn’t left me,” she wrote. “I would keep hearing her voice, in the days and the weeks after her death. Even now, years later, I still hear her.”

Lynn named her daughter after Cline.