n the late 1970s, in the midst of the disco movement, a number of producers attempted to cross country artists over onto the pop charts. One of the artists who benefited from the cross-promotion was a long-haired country siren known as Crystal Gayle.

Born Brenda Gayle Webb on January 9, 1951 in Paintsville, Kentucky and raised in Wabash, Indiana, Gayle grew up in a large musical family. Her sister Loretta just happened to be country singer Loretta Lynn, and in 1970, Loretta gave her sister a huge break by arranging for Brenda to sign with Decca Records, as well as by giving her a new name -- Crystal.

First charting on Sept. 24, 1977, Crystal Gayle's "Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue" reached No. 2 on the pop charts for three weeks in November 1977, kept from No. 1 by Debby Boone's "You Light Up My Life." It was the lead single from her 1977 album We Must Believe In Magic, which peaked at No. 12 on the Billboard Hot 200 album chart and remained on the chart for 35 weeks.

As Gayle explained in Finding Her Voice, "Changing it to Crystal -- I felt like, well... I'm a star or something. It is a pretty name, and one of the reasons my sister picked it out was because she thought it was bright and shiny, and she thought that's what I was." Loretta also wrote Crystal's first country hit, the #23 "I've Cried (The Blues Right Out Of My Eyes)," but accusations that Crystal owed her career to Loretta prompted the singer to move on to United Artists.

For several years, Crystal maintained a healthy career on the country charts but found the pop charts elusive. But in 1977, a song by Richard Leigh took her in a new direction. Rick Blackburn, a popular country-music producer, noted in America's Music: The Roots of Country that Crystal's success wasn't entirely a fluke, stating, "We were trying to be all things to all people. When you talk about 'crossover,' as you think back on it, we almost ruined country music by doing that. And I'm as guilty as anybody. We thought that if we could sign country music artists and make pop-sounding records, we could fool a lot of people into thinking they're really pop. We brought in Crystal Gayle, for example, who was a fine country music singer, but our whole mission was to make pop-sounding records."

But for Crystal, the song's success simply served to bring her music to a wider audience. She recalled in America's Music: The Roots Of Country, "It was so neat to be a part of that time in Nashville, where things were changing. Having a crossover record was wonderful. I was so lucky to have a song that went all the way up the country charts, as well as the pop charts, 'Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue.' A song like that, for a country artist, opens so many doors. I had so many letters, and I still do, where they would tell me that my music made them open up to country music."

"Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue" entered the country charts in July, 1977. A month later, it debuted on the pop charts at #90. After a 16-week climb, the single became Crystal's biggest pop hit, peaking at #2 for three straight weeks. The single also topped the country charts and reached #4 on the Adult Contemporary charts as well. Grammy nominations followed for both Record of the Year and Song of the Year, in addition to the track winning the awards for Best Country Song and Best Female Country Performance.

Crystal's crossover pop success continued after her signature hit "Brown Eyes," reaching the Top 40 twice again in the 1970s with "Talking In Your Sleep" (#18, 1978) and "Half The Way" (#15, 1979). In 1982, a duet with Eddie Rabbit, "You And I," hit #7. In 1979, she became the first country artist to tour China.

- Christopher G. Feldman, The Billboard Book of No. 2 Singles, Billboard, 2000.

 

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