From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Crystal Gayle
Crystal Gayle's 2005 live CD
Background information
Birth name	Brenda Gail Webb
Also known as	Crystal Gayle
Born	January 09, 1951 (age 56)
Origin	Paintsville, Kentucky
Genre(s)	Country music/Pop music
Occupation(s)	country singer/pop singer
Instrument(s)	Vocals
Years active	1970-Present
Associated acts	Loretta Lynn, Eddie Rabbitt, Lynn Anderson, Kenny Rogers, Barbara Mandrell
Website	Crystal Gayle Official Website

Crystal Gayle (born Brenda Gail Webb January 9, 1951) is an American Country Music/Pop Music Singer. In the 70s and 80s, she enjoyed much Country Music crossover success with hits, like "Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue", "Talking In Your Sleep" and "Half the Way". She is famous for her nearly floor length long hair and was voted one of the 50 most beautiful people in the world in 1983. She is also the sister of singer Loretta Lynn and cousin of singer Patty Loveless.

Contents 1 Early life & rise to fame 2 The success of 1977 3 Height of career 4 Crystal Gayle today 5 Discography 5.1 Selected Hit Singles 5.2 Selected Albums 6 Sources 7 External links

Although Crystal Gayle is the younger sister of Loretta Lynn, Gayle's musical sound is far different from the style of her big sister. Loretta's twangy, earthy and edgy voice gave a good beat to her best known songs like "Rated X", "Don't Come Home a-Drinkin' (With Lovin' On Your Mind)" and "The Pill". Crystal, meanwhile is best known for her Country/Pop crossover ballads she introduced to the world in the late 70s and 80s. The two sisters had never sounded so different. The two sisters are also products of their time. In the 1960s, a deep-rooted twang still was important to Country music. Crystal on the other hand came into Country Music when it was going towards a more Pop-oriented sound, showing up such glam-oriented stars as Lynn Anderson and Barbara Mandrell. These differing production themes gave Crystal a less "twangy" sound, closer to other popular music styles of the time, than that of her sister in the 1960s.

She was born in Paintsville, Kentucky but grew up in Wabash, Indiana, which is two hours southeast of Chicago. Here, Gayle was raised in a rural, farming community. In Indiana, Gayle was also exposed to various genres of music, which help explains Gayle's unique vocal sound. Her first name, Crystal comes from a nickname given to her by her big sister Loretta. She nicknamed her Crystal because of her fondness for Krystal Hamburgers. In the mid-60s, Gayle went on tour with Lynn, which helped her land her first recording contract with Decca Records in 1970. That same year, she released her first single, entitled "I've Cried the Blue Right Out of My Eyes", which was also composed by her big sister. However, the single didn't gain initial success. This was probably due to the fact that Gayle didn't really have her own sound. In fact, in her earlier recordings she sounded more like her sister Loretta Lynn than she sounded like Lynn Anderson. After signing with United Artists in 1974 and with the help of producer and songwriter Allen Reynolds, Gayle was able to find her real voice. He also wrote her early singles such as "Wrong Road Again" which became her first top 10 in 1975 and "Somebody Loves You", another top 10 in 1976.

Her first #1 in 1976 called "I'll Get Over You", brought her initial stardom in Country music and also her first pop hit. She followed with another number 1 in 1977 with "You Never Miss A Real Good Thing (Till He Says Goodbye)" and a number 2 hit the same year with "I'll Do It All Over Again". But the best was yet to come.

Her fourth album, We Must Believe in Magic (released in 1977) brought her to a wide audience. Fuelled by the worldwide hit single "Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue" (written by Richard Leigh), which reached number one on the U.S. country music charts, but also was a number two pop single, the album became a best seller, the first by a female Country Artist to reach platinum status. She won a Grammy Award for Best Female Country Vocal Performance for the single. Richard Leigh also received a Grammy award for the song. The song made Crystal Gayle a household name. In 1977 and 1978 she was chosen the Country Music Association's "Female Vocalist of the Year." She also toured with Kenny Rogers in Britain. Gayle has also been selling out the crowds world-wide on her own as well, in addition to a trip to China with Bob Hope where she became the first person to tape a performance on the Great Wall of China. She has appeared in her own specials on CBS, to critical acclaim and very high ratings, which led to her "Christmas in Sweden" special, as well.

However, Crystal Gayle's career was far from over. After the success of "Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue", Gayle and her producer never looked back. For the next decade or so, Gayle went more and more towards Pop, eventually gaining the success her other glam-oriented counterpart singers had also received. She continued to hit the Country and Pop charts again and again throughout the late 70s and well into the 80s. In 1978, Gayle got her fourth #1 hit with "Ready For the Times to Get Better". She had a couple of other crossover hits that became big Top Ten and Top Twenty Pop hits, first starting with "Talking In Your Sleep" in 1978. Other crossover hits include "Half the Way" and "You and I", which was a duet hit with Eddie Rabbitt in 1982. In 1979, she switched to Columbia Records and released the album Miss the Mississippi that same year from Columbia. This album included the big hits "Half The Way" and "It's Like We Never Said Goodbye". Other hits for Crystal during this time included "If You Ever Change Your Mind"(1980), "Too Many Lovers"(1981), "The Woman In Me"(1981), "You Never Gave Up On Me"(1982), and "Living In These Troubled Times"(1982).

In 1982, Crystal worked with Tom Waits on the soundtrack for Francis Ford Coppola the movie One From the Heart. Also in 1982, Crystal switched labels again, this time to Elektra Records, where she scored a duet hit with Eddie Rabbitt called "You And I" which went to number 1 on the country charts and number 7 on the pop charts. She also reached number 1 in 1983 with "Till I Can Gain Control Again". When Elektra Records closed their country division in 1983, Warner Brothers became her new label and started off with 2 more crossover number 1 country hits in 1983 and 1984 with "Baby What About You" and "The Sound Of Goodbye". Both of these singles would also become her last hits to reach the Top 100 on the pop charts. Other hits during this time include "Our Love Is On The Faultline", "I Don't Want To Lose Your Love", "Me Against The Night", "A Long And Lasting Love", and several more number 1's with "Cry"(1986) and "Straight From The Heart"(1987) which would become her last number 1. She also had several duet hits with Gary Morris, which include the 1986 number 1, "Making Up For Lost Time" and the theme song for the soap opera Another World which was a top 5 hit for them in 1987.

Crystal remained very successful, well until 1988, when her string of #1s and Top Tens finally dried out. In her whole career, Crystal Gayle scored a miraculous 18 #1 hits. Her success is probably compared to none other than her sister, who also scored many #1s as well as Crystal did. Her last major hit on the Country charts was "Only Love Can Save Me Now" in 1988.

With many of her hits being songs about heartbreak, a contemporary Shoe comic strip featured a muscular, vengeful character saying "I want to find the guy who's doing all those terrible things to Crystal Gayle!"

Gayle continues to record and perform, packing halls from Louisville to Leningrad. In 1987, she guest-starred on the soap opera Another World; she played herself (a friend of the character Felicia Gallant) and was menaced by a serial killer known as the "Sin Stalker". She sang a duet with Gary Morris both on the show and at the 1987 Daytime Emmy Awards. From October 1987 until March 1996, her duet was the theme song for the serial. She also guest-starred on Second City TV in 1983 and acted in a comic sendup of A Star is Born.

One of Gayle's most cherished awards came in October 2000, when the Cherokee Nation bestowed upon her their highest award, the Cherokee Medal of Honor. On June 9, 2005, she took the stage at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tennessee for a live reprise of her cross-over smash hit, "You and I," a duet she had recorded with Eddie Rabbitt. That song had been named the number 7 all-time best/favorite Country Music Duet during a countdown and concert that listed the "Top 100 Greatest Country Duets" of all time.

Crystal Gayle is known to be the female artist with the longest hair in the world. Her website says that the reason she grew her hair to such incredible lengths is because she had to have it short as a child (her mother had wanted a boy, not a girl.) She's been wearing her hair at its current floor length since the late 1980s (but has had at least "classic length" all through adulthood) and wears high heels so it does not drag on the ground. Crystal has confessed she sometimes has nightmares about waking up with all her hair cut off, and once a fan cut off a large chunk of her sister’s hair, Crystal became extra protective of her own hair among fans; she is even said to have highly trained “hair bodyguards.” She has also posed for pictures with other women with very long hair (also sometimes to the floor). Her daughter has much shorter hair, and Crystal has often remarked she's sad that so far her daughter has chosen not to follow in her mother's long hair footsteps.

Gayle's admitted her "heartbeat" is her family. She married her high school sweetheart, Bill Gatzimos, shortly after graduating high school. The couple has two children, Catherine and Cris, and one grandson, Elijah. Gayle's family resides in Nashville, where she also has her own specialty store, "Crystal's for Fine Gifts and Jewelry."

A new Crystal Gayle in Concert DVD was taped in Nashville on June 9, 2005 released later that year.

In 2006, she appeared on an episode of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition when she stopped by to help with the making of a new house near Nashville.

Crystal was ranked #33 on CMT's 40 Greatest Women of Country Music. #1 on the list was Patsy Cline. Gayle remains extremely popular and maintains a very hectic and full concert tour schedule, with dates already booked well into 2007.

In January, 2007, Gayle's tour bus was stolen from a Nashville garage by an escaped convict, Christopher Daniel Gay, who drove the vehicle to the USA International Speedway in Lakeland, Florida. Gay was arrested after watching a Speedfest 2007 race there.

Year	Single	U.S. Country Singles	U.S. Pop Singles	U.S. A.C. Singles	Album
1970	"I've Cried (the Blue Right Out of My Eyes)"	23	-	-	I've Cried the Blue Right Out of My Eyes [originally a single only]
1974	"Restless"	39	-	-	[single only]
1975	"Wrong Road Again"	6	-	-	Crystal Gayle
1975	"Beyond You"	27	-	-	Crystal Gayle
1975	"This Is My Year for Mexico"	21	-	-	Crystal Gayle
1976	"Somebody Loves You"	8	-	-	Somebody Loves You
1976	"I'll Get Over You"	#1	71	40	Somebody Loves You
1976	"One More Time (Karneval)"	31	-	-	Crystal
1977	"You Never Miss a Real Good Thing (Till He Says Goodbye)"	#1	-	-	Crystal
1977	"I'll Do It All Over Again"	2	-	-	Crystal
1977	"Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue"	#1	2	4	We Must Believe in Magic
1978	"I've Cried (the Blue Right Out of My Eyes)"	40	-	-	I've Cried the Blue Right Out of My Eyes [re-release of 1970 song]
1978	"Ready for the Times to Get Better"	#1	52	3	Crystal
1978	"Talking in Your Sleep"	#1	18	3	When I Dream
1979	"Why Have You Left the One You Left Me For?"	#1	-	22	When I Dream
1979	"When I Dream"	3	84	20	When I Dream
1979	"Your Kisses Will"	7	-	35	We Should Be Together
1979	"Half the Way"	2	15	9	Miss the Mississippi
1980	"Your Old Cold Shoulder"	5	-	-	We Should Be Together
1980	"It's Like We Never Said Goodbye"	#1	63	17	Miss the Mississippi
1980	"The Blue Side"	8	81	16	Miss the Mississippi
1980	"If You Ever Change Your Mind"	#1	-	18	These Days
1981	"Take It Easy"	17	-	-	These Days
1981	"Too Many Lovers"	#1	-	-	These Days
1981	"The Woman in Me"	3	76	17	Hollywood, Tennessee
1982	"You Never Gave Up on Me"	5	-	32	Hollywood, Tennessee
1982	"Livin' in These Troubled Times"	9	-	-	Hollywood, Tennessee
1982	"You and I" (with Eddie Rabbitt)	#1	7	2	Radio Romance [Eddie Rabbitt album]
1983	"'Til I Gain Control Again"	#1	-	-	True Love
1983	"Our Love Is on the Faultine"	#1	-	23	True Love
1983	"Baby, What About You?"	#1	83	9	True Love
1984	"The Sound of Goodbye"	#1	84	10	Cage the Songbird
1984	"I Don't Wanna Lose Your Love"	2	-	15	Cage the Songbird
1984	"Turning Away"	#1	-	-	Cage the Songbird
1984	"Me Against the Night"	4	-	-	Cage the Songbird
1985	"Nobody Wants to Be Alone"	3	-	-	Nobody Wants to Be Alone
1985	"A Long and Lasting Love"	5	-	-	Nobody Wants to Be Alone
1986	"Making Up for Lost Time (The Dallas Lovers' Song)" [with Gary Morris]	#1	-	36	What If We Fall in Love [Gary Morris album]
1986	"Cry"	#1	-	-	Straight to the Heart
1987	"Straight to the Heart"	#1	-	-	Straight to the Heart
1987	"Another World" [with Gary Morris]	4	-	-	What If We Fall in Love [Gary Morris album]
1987	"Nobody Should Have to Love This Way"	26	-	-	Straight to the Heart
1988	"Only Love Can Save Me Now"	11	-	-	Straight to the Heart
1988	"All of This and More" [with Gary Morris]	26	-	-	What If We Fall in Love [Gary Morris album]
1988	"Nobody's Angel"	22	-	-	Nobody's Angel

Year	Cover	Album	RIAA Certification
1975		Crystal Gayle	-
1975		Somebody Loves You	-
1976		Crystal	-
1977		We Must Believe in Magic	Platinum
1978		I've Cried the Blue Right Out of My Eyes	-
1978		When I Dream	Platinum
1979		We Should Be Together	-
1979		Miss the Mississippi	Gold
1979	-	Classic Crystal	Gold
1980		These Days	Gold
1981		Hollywood, Tennessee	-
1982		True Love	-
1983		Cage the Songbird	-
1983	-	Crystal Gayle's Greatest Hits	Gold
1985		Nobody Wants to Be Alone	-
1986		Straight to the Heart	-
1986	-	A Crystal Christmas	-
1988		Nobody's Angel	-
1990		Ain't Gonna Worry	-
1992		Three Good Reasons	-
1995	-	Someday	-
1997	-	Joy and Inspiration	-
1999	-	Crystal Gayle Sings the Heart and Soul of Hoagy Carmichael	-
2003	-	All My Tomorrows	-
2005		Crystal Gayle in Concert	-

• All Music Guide
• Flippo, Chet. (1998). "Crystal Gayle." In The Encyclopedia of Country Music. Paul Kingsbury, Ed. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 156-7.
• Wolff, Kurt. Country Music: The Rough Guide

• Crystal Gayle's official web site
• Opening sequence to Another World, with Crystal Gayle theme, from The World of Soap Themes. (It's a .ram file and streaming, so optimal play may be achieved only with computers equipped with DSL modems or higher).
• Crystal Gayle feature in Long Hair World (erroneously refers to Crystal as Canadian)