Darius Rucker Covers Patsy Cline’s First Hit, “Walkin’ After Midnight”, On Grand Ole Opry’s 5,000th Saturday Show

Darius Rucker country music

It doesn’t get much better than Darius Rucker covering Patsy Cline on the Grand Ole Opry stage.

The Opry celebrated their 5,000th career Saturday night broadcast this past weekend, with a stacked lineup of performers including Garth Brooks, Dustin Lynch, Darius Rucker, and Trisha Yearwood, as well as Bill Anderson, Terri Clark, Vince Gill, Chris Janson, Jeannie Seely, Connie Smith, The Gatlin Brothers and Chris Young.

Darius joined the Grand Ole Opry as an official member in 2012, but he threw it was back to 1957 for the first song of his performance when he broke out Patsy’s classic “Walkin’ After Midnight”.

From her 1957 self-titled debut studio album, the song was also her debut single and was written by Alan Block and Donn Hecht.

Though Patsy initially didn’t want to record it, she eventually agreed to it after some nudging from her label and the compromise that she could also record  “A Poor Man’s Roses (Or a Rich Man’s Gold)”, which is the song she really loved and wanted to sing.

It worked out pretty well for her in the end, though, as “Walkin’ After Midnight” peaked at #2 on the Billboard U.S. Hot Country Singles chart, as well as peaking at #12 on the Billboard U.S. Hot 100 chart, becoming her first hit in country music and one of her signature songs.

Of course, Darius did it justice with his rendition (in a pretty impressive beaded black suit, at that):

“Hello, how y’all doin’? It’s awesome to be here tonight, it’s awesome. I’m channeling my inner Little Jimmie Dickens today, so let’s do it you guys.”

“Walkin’ After Midnight”

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