Crystal Gayle Stories

(written by Richard Leigh)

Crystal Gayle (#1 country, #2 pop, #4 adult contemporary, 1977)

Few people would be disappointed with a #1 record, but “I’ll Get Over You,” recorded by Crystal Gayle, sent songwriter Richard Leigh into a deep depression. The song was recorded even before Leigh had a publisher and it went on to become a #1 single and secure a 1976 Country Music Association nomination for “Song of the Year.” But when two more of his songs were recorded with little success, Richard feared that his career was already over.

Leigh lived in a Nashville duplex next to songwriter Sandy Mason, and when his depression seemed to wear on, she asked Crystal Gayle’s producer Allen Reynolds to drop by and give him some encouragement. When Reynolds arrived, the three of them sat on the floor of Mason’s apartment and went over song material.

Richard sang some of the new things that he had been working on, and then he mentioned this other song he had just finished called “Don’t It Make My Brown Eyes Blue,” which he planned to submit to British pop music legend Shirley Bassey. Reynolds said “Let’s hear it” and after Leigh sang the song, Allen immediately knew that he had to have it for Crystal.

On the day Crystal Gayle went in to record “Don’t It Make My Brown Eyes Blue” at “Jack’s Tracks” (an independent studio owned by Jack Clement) on October 27, 1976, she had to tackle it using a different keyboard player than she was familiar with. Her usual pianist, Charles Cochran, was recovering from a mild stroke and was experiencing some numbness in his hands as a result, so Reynolds hired a substitute piano player for the session.

But this was no ordinary substitute.

It was the legendary Hargus “Pig” Robbins, who had played so memorably on dozens of classic country hits including George Jones’ “White Lightning” (1959), David Houston’s “Almost Persuaded” (1966) and Charlie Rich’s “Behind Closed Doors” (1973).

For “Don’t It Make My Brown Eyes Blue,” Robbins instantly devised the song’s signature acoustic piano riff, which gave it a “bluesy” feel and probably contributed as much as anything to the record becoming the monster hit that it was. Cochran had recovered enough to participate on the session, playing the horn parts on a Wurlitzer.

Once the arrangement had been worked up and submitted to the musicians, engineer Garth Fundis began rolling tape and the song went down live in just one take. Only the string section was overdubbed later. The recording was achieved so quickly that Crystal wasn’t certain that she had done her best possible job, so she did it again a couple of times just to be sure, but in the end, producer Reynolds decided to go with the first one.

“Don’t It Make My Brown Eyes Blue” brought Leigh his second “Song of the Year” trophy from the Country Music Association and netted two Grammys. It was Gayle’s only million-selling single, staying at the summit of Billboard’s country chart for an entire month. The record reached #2 on Billboard’s “Hot 100” pop chart, blocked from the top by Debby Boone’s “You Light Up My Life.” In 1978, Crystal’s album “We Must Believe In Magic” became the first platinum album certified by the Recording Industry Association of America for a Nashville-based female artist (Tammy Wynette’s “Greatest Hits” package had actually accomplished this feat back in ’69 before the achievement was recognized by the RIAA, but Gayle’s was the first one certified). In 1999, “Don’t It Make My Brown Eyes Blue” was recognized by ASCAP as one of the ten most-performed songs of the 20th Century.

The song has an unfortunate postscript. Richard Leigh wrote it while his dog, Amanda, sat as his feet, staring up at him with her big brown eyes. A few years later, a trash collector threw rocks at the dog, hitting her in one of her eyes. Amanda developed cataracts and one of her brown eyes literally turned blue.