Welcome back to 1982 and where we left off yesterday with Crystal Gayle’s album “True Love”, opening with a decidedly stronger (albeit still soft) rock edge with ’Our Love Is On The Fault Line’. This provided Crystal's biggest hit in 3 years, reaching #1 in both the U.S. and Canada plus #23 on the US AC chart. The highlight is Chris Leuzinger's countrified guitar solo, around 2:40 in the song. Also of note is the catchy lyric comparing a rocky relationship to an earthquake, with clever rhymes - "… Baby, our love is on the fault line / And you're sayin' that the fault's mine / … You've been stirrin' up an earthquake / You've been cookin' up a heartbreak…". One part of the lyric even plays off her own name as she sings - "… Now there's a chilly wind a blowin' / and it's whippin' up a gale …" -
The third single released from the “True Love“ album, if the Josh Leo and Wendy Waldman composed ‘Baby, What About You’ ain’t about the cutest song on this entire country music history series, I dunno what is. The great dancing piano intro wraps around Crystal‘s vocals at the song’s start, leading into the harmonic (she also sang the backing) that almost sounds as if it was from the 1960’s, like it could’ve been recorded by Ronnie Spector, not a brand new song in 1983. It was another runaway hit, going all the way to # 1 in both the U.S. and Canada and also peaking at # 9 on the AC charts in the U.S. and Canada -
Now for something very different - and I guess I’m cheating again a bit here, because what follows ain’t really country, but just too good to exclude from the Gayle catalog here. One of the most overlooked gems in country and rock history is the soundtrack album that Tom Waits and Crystal Gayle collaborated on for the 1982 movie “One From The Heart”, a metaphorical retelling of the exploits of Zeus and Hera set in Las Vegas - a bit too obscure for most, ahead of its time in terms of technology, use of colour, montage and set design. Directed by Francis Ford Coppola, it’s an epic but largely forgotten movie that at the time got bad reviews and bombed at the box office, but in hindsight and for many serious movie devotees, it’s a beautiful, heartbreaking and brilliant picture. There are many mesmerising songs on the soundtrack album, but I can’t include many here - so I picked two I think stand out.
The first one up is the captivating duet between Tom Waits and Gayle entitled ’Take Me Home’ - written by Waits. One might’ve thought it crazy to try matching this polar opposite pair. Turns out it was a genius move - this is simply such a great listen. Described by All Music critic, Thom Jureck, as “one of the most beautifully wrought soundtrack collaborations in history”, it’s exquisite, with Gayle’s clear, ringing vocals proving the perfect foil to Wait’s smoky baritone. The gravelly Waits, so raw and rough, like someone who’s just stumbled out of a dingy bar, and yet so tender, contrasting with Crystal, the radiant beauty with an angelic voice, who sounds like she’s just gracefully exited Sunday church. The contrast couldn’t be greater, yet it works perfectly - Waits' piano is a canny and intuitive counterpart to the deep sensuality of Gayle's vocal, while the combination of their voices really pulls the heart stings - two voices in glorious contrast … one perfect song -
‘Old Boyfriends‘ is the second song picked from the “One From The Heart,” soundtrack. Gayle’s performance on this wistful, melancholic song is stunning -
‘The Sound Of Goodbye’ written by Hugh Prestwood, was the first single released from the 1984 “Cage the Songbird” album, the title taken from the Elton John Song. This was Gayle’s last Top 10 charted album, at # 5. The single itself was another huge hit, peaking at # 1, her 13th # 1 as a solo artist and also climbed into the Top 10 of the AC chert -
Gayle's last # 1 singles came in 1986 with ’Cry‘ and the smooth Gary Morris duet ’Makin' Up for Lost Time‘, after which she -- rather abruptly - all but disappeared from the charts. Now a mother of 2 young children, a daughter in born 1983 and a son born in 1986, Gayle, at age 35, stepped back from the constant recording and touring schedule as her priorities changed. She served as spokesperson for Tennessee's "Healthy Children Initiative", credited with expanding prenatal care in that state tenfold. In 1988, Gayle took an active role in politics, stumping on the campaign trail for George Bush throughout the South.
Gayle continued to record, albeit at a much slower pace than her chart-topping era, reuniting with Allen Reynolds for the 1990 Capitol album “Ain't Gonna Worry” and cut specialty projects for smaller labels thereafter. She recorded two gospel albums during the 1990’s, “Someday” and “He Is Beautiful”. In 1999, in a move somewhat akin to Linda Ronstadt’s in the 1980’s to cover classic standards of the Great American songbook, Gayle completed a tribute project, “Crystal Gayle Sings the Heart & Soul of Hoagy Carmichael”. In the meantime, she ran a shop in Nashville devoted to fine jewelry and (of course) crystal. Gayle opened the new millennium with 2000's “In My Arms”, an album of children's songs, then in 2003 she brought out “All My Tomorrows”, a collection of Great American Songbook standards (just like Linda Ronstadt had previously done), after which Gayle went on an extended hiatus from recording.
However, just as it appeared Crystal Gayle’s stellar career had completely wound down to a quiet retirement, there came an unexpected revival as her legacy came to be more appreciated - so tomorrow has the postscript to complete her story up to now.
The third single released from the “True Love“ album, if the Josh Leo and Wendy Waldman composed ‘Baby, What About You’ ain’t about the cutest song on this entire country music history series, I dunno what is. The great dancing piano intro wraps around Crystal‘s vocals at the song’s start, leading into the harmonic (she also sang the backing) that almost sounds as if it was from the 1960’s, like it could’ve been recorded by Ronnie Spector, not a brand new song in 1983. It was another runaway hit, going all the way to # 1 in both the U.S. and Canada and also peaking at # 9 on the AC charts in the U.S. and Canada -
Now for something very different - and I guess I’m cheating again a bit here, because what follows ain’t really country, but just too good to exclude from the Gayle catalog here. One of the most overlooked gems in country and rock history is the soundtrack album that Tom Waits and Crystal Gayle collaborated on for the 1982 movie “One From The Heart”, a metaphorical retelling of the exploits of Zeus and Hera set in Las Vegas - a bit too obscure for most, ahead of its time in terms of technology, use of colour, montage and set design. Directed by Francis Ford Coppola, it’s an epic but largely forgotten movie that at the time got bad reviews and bombed at the box office, but in hindsight and for many serious movie devotees, it’s a beautiful, heartbreaking and brilliant picture. There are many mesmerising songs on the soundtrack album, but I can’t include many here - so I picked two I think stand out.
The first one up is the captivating duet between Tom Waits and Gayle entitled ’Take Me Home’ - written by Waits. One might’ve thought it crazy to try matching this polar opposite pair. Turns out it was a genius move - this is simply such a great listen. Described by All Music critic, Thom Jureck, as “one of the most beautifully wrought soundtrack collaborations in history”, it’s exquisite, with Gayle’s clear, ringing vocals proving the perfect foil to Wait’s smoky baritone. The gravelly Waits, so raw and rough, like someone who’s just stumbled out of a dingy bar, and yet so tender, contrasting with Crystal, the radiant beauty with an angelic voice, who sounds like she’s just gracefully exited Sunday church. The contrast couldn’t be greater, yet it works perfectly - Waits' piano is a canny and intuitive counterpart to the deep sensuality of Gayle's vocal, while the combination of their voices really pulls the heart stings - two voices in glorious contrast … one perfect song -
‘Old Boyfriends‘ is the second song picked from the “One From The Heart,” soundtrack. Gayle’s performance on this wistful, melancholic song is stunning -
‘The Sound Of Goodbye’ written by Hugh Prestwood, was the first single released from the 1984 “Cage the Songbird” album, the title taken from the Elton John Song. This was Gayle’s last Top 10 charted album, at # 5. The single itself was another huge hit, peaking at # 1, her 13th # 1 as a solo artist and also climbed into the Top 10 of the AC chert -
Gayle's last # 1 singles came in 1986 with ’Cry‘ and the smooth Gary Morris duet ’Makin' Up for Lost Time‘, after which she -- rather abruptly - all but disappeared from the charts. Now a mother of 2 young children, a daughter in born 1983 and a son born in 1986, Gayle, at age 35, stepped back from the constant recording and touring schedule as her priorities changed. She served as spokesperson for Tennessee's "Healthy Children Initiative", credited with expanding prenatal care in that state tenfold. In 1988, Gayle took an active role in politics, stumping on the campaign trail for George Bush throughout the South.
Gayle continued to record, albeit at a much slower pace than her chart-topping era, reuniting with Allen Reynolds for the 1990 Capitol album “Ain't Gonna Worry” and cut specialty projects for smaller labels thereafter. She recorded two gospel albums during the 1990’s, “Someday” and “He Is Beautiful”. In 1999, in a move somewhat akin to Linda Ronstadt’s in the 1980’s to cover classic standards of the Great American songbook, Gayle completed a tribute project, “Crystal Gayle Sings the Heart & Soul of Hoagy Carmichael”. In the meantime, she ran a shop in Nashville devoted to fine jewelry and (of course) crystal. Gayle opened the new millennium with 2000's “In My Arms”, an album of children's songs, then in 2003 she brought out “All My Tomorrows”, a collection of Great American Songbook standards (just like Linda Ronstadt had previously done), after which Gayle went on an extended hiatus from recording.
However, just as it appeared Crystal Gayle’s stellar career had completely wound down to a quiet retirement, there came an unexpected revival as her legacy came to be more appreciated - so tomorrow has the postscript to complete her story up to now.