Singer, songwriter, and guitarist Crystal Gayle is noted as a singer of tender ballads—and for her ankle-length hair. One of the most successful country artists of the 1970s and 1980s, Gayle produced many chart-topping hits, and is credited with smoothing the rough edges from country music, substituting a softer, more dramatic sound.
Gayle was born Brenda Gail Webb on January 9, 1951, in Paintsville, Kentucky, but she was raised in Wabash, Indiana after her family relocated in 1955. Her older sister is country star Loretta LYNN, who was already married by the time Gayle was born.
As a teenager, Crystal Gayle listened to pop and folk music, sang gospel music in church, and country songs around the house and at charity benefits. Loretta soon nicknamed her younger sister Crystal, after Krystal’s hamburgers, a favourite Nashville burger chain. Crystal joined Loretta’s road show at age 16.
Gayle signed with Decca records in 1970 as a solo artist. Her debut single, Lynn’s “I’ve Cried the Blue Right Out of My Eyes,” reached the Top 30 on the charts. In 1972, Gayle appeared regularly on Jim Ed Brown’s The Country Place television show.
Unhappy with Decca’s promotional efforts, she signed with United Artists, where producer Allen Reynolds gave her a softer sound and more standard material. The move was a success, and after marrying her high school sweetheart, Bill Gatzimos, Gayle’s career took off in the mid-1970s. Her debut records for United Artists spawned three hits, including “Beyond You,” “This Is My Year for Mexico,” and Reynolds’ “Wrong Road Again.”
Gayle’s most successful year was 1976. It brought two No. 1 hits: Richard Leigh’s “I’ll Get Over You” and Bob McDill’s “You Never Miss a Real Good Thing.” “I’ll Do It All Over Again” reached the Top 3 in 1977, and her signature song and first No. 1 country single, “Don’t It Make My Brown Eyes Blue” also rose to Top 3 on the pop chart before turning gold and delivering a Grammy for “Best Country Song.” The album from which it came, We Must Believe in Magic, was only the second-ever platinum album by a female country singer. The following year brought three more No. 1 hits in a row: “Ready for the Times to Get Better,” “Talking in Your Sleep,” and “Why Have You Left the One You Left Me For.”
Appearing on Bob Hope’s Road to China television show in 1979, Gayle became the first country singer to visit China. She received the ACM’s Top Female Vocalist award for the second time, and her fifth album spawned a Top 3 hit, “When I Dream.”
Moving to the Columbia label, Gayle retained Allen Reynolds as producer. Her Columbia debut, Miss the Mississippi, produced several hits, including the title cut, “Half the Way,” “Your Old Cold Shoulder,” and two No. 1 hits, “It’s Like We Never Said Goodbye” and “If You Ever Change Your Mind.”
Moving to Elektra Records in 1982, Gayle released “You and I,” a duet with Eddie Rabbitt, which became a No. 1 country crossover. She scored another hit with a cover of Rodney Crowell’s “Till I Gain Control Again.” Switching to Warner Brothers, Gayle continued her success story with three No. 1 hits in 1983. She also released a video of her command performance at Canada’s Hamilton Palace.
In the late 1980s, country labels turned their attention to “New Country,” and Gayle, like so many other established stars, failed to maintain attention among the new video hitmakers. Nevertheless, she remains a committed and captivating performer, an emotional singer, and a steady concert draw in Las Vegas and Atlantic City. She continues to tour in the U.S. and Europe, and owns a crystal store near her nine-acre ranch in Nashville, Tennessee.
Todd Denton
Krishef, Robert K. More New Breed Stars
(Minneapolis, MN: Lerner Publications, 1986).
Crystal Gayle; Greatest Hits;
I’ve Cried the Blue Right out of My Eyes;
Somebody Loves You; We Must Believe in Magic;
We Should Be Together.