Country-pop singer finds value in own voice

By Derek Paiva
Advertiser Staff Writer

Crystal Gayle started her career by singing songs by her sister, Loretta Lynn. Eventually she found her voice and became a star in her own right. Gayle became so famous in the late '70s and early '80s for her country songs that she crossed over to the pop charts. Crystal Gayle 8 p.m. Thursday Blaisdell Concert Hall $25-$35 526-4400, 591-2211 Also: 8 p.m. March 15 at Maui Arts & Cultural Center; $25-$35. 242-7469.

"She told me to quit singing her songs," said Gayle, 51, reminiscing via telephone from her Nashville, Tenn., home. "She said, 'We have one Loretta Lynn. We don't need another one. You'll only be compared.'"

Gee, thanks a lot, sis.

By 1970, 19-year-old Gayle was not only inextricably linked to older sister Loretta's career via occasional appearances on the already-established singer's tours, but had achieved her biggest hit single to date with a cover of Lynn's "I've Cried the Blues Right Out of My Eyes." The two shared a manager in Lynn's husband Mooney, and Gayle had been on her sister's record label, Decca, since high school.

Born Brenda Gail Webb, even Gayle's stage name was suggested by Lynn following a stroke of inspiration while driving past one of the South's many Krystal Hamburger stands.

"She said the name was very bright and shiny ... and that's what she wanted me to be called," Gayle said. "I didn't care what they called me as long as I could record."

Lynn suggested her sister move away from the harder-edged country both were singing into the gentler pop-leaning contemporary sound that was beginning to gain favor with younger country fans and radio programmers. Gayle responded by severing ties with Decca, her manager, and famed Nashville producer Owen Bradley, who had chosen all of her songs until that time.

How's that for heeding sisterly advice?

Honolulu fans will get to hear the glorious results of Gayle's now 30-plus-year-old career makeover at the Grammy Award winning vocalist's Thursday evening Blaisdell Concert Hall performance. Among the songs Gayle promises: a fair share of her, count 'em, 18 No. 1 country singles, several of her pop crossover hits and maybe a cover or two from musical idols Billie Holliday and Hoagy Carmichael, well, just because.

"And I've gotta do 'Brown Eyes,' said Gayle, laughing, of her signature song. "I think I'd be in trouble if I Êdidn't do that."

Ah, "Brown Eyes."

By the time songwriter Richard Leigh's "Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue" found its way into Gayle's hands in 1977, the singer was already something of a household name with country music fans. Working with producer Allen Reynolds (now much lauded for his work with Garth Brooks) Gayle had already released two albums and racked up several hit singles — including "I'll Get Over You" and "You Never Miss a Real Good Thing (Till He Says Goodbye)" both of which had gone No. 1 on the country chart and made dents on the pop chart.

Gayle said she wasn't angling for the pop crossover smash that "Brown Eyes" would become, but "I knew it was a special song." Although she and Reynolds fought to save the song from being sent to a mainstream pop singer, "I had to ... really do some hard talking to the label (United Artists) to release it as the first single."

The song would become one of the biggest hits of Gayle's career — hitting No. 1 in country and No. 2 in pop in the summer of 1977. "Brown Eyes" also won Gayle a Grammy Award for Best Female Country Vocal Performance of 1977 and Female Vocalist of the Year honors from her peers in the Country Music Association. Still, she remains proud of the recording's endurance as a country and pop standard for much simpler reasons.

"That recording was the first take of it we did in the studio," Gayle said. "What you hear on the radio is what happened when the machine went on. I tried to re-sing it to clear up the little flats here and there, but it just didn't work. And so we left it. And that's what you hear."

The next five years saw Gayle crossing a number of her biggest country hits ("Talking In Your Sleep," "Why Have You Left The One You Left Me For," "Half The Way," among them) over to the pop charts with regularity. After hearing a Gayle rendition of "Cry Me A River," gravelly-voiced troubadour Tom Waits hand-picked the singer to duet and sing solo on his compositions for Francis Ford Coppola's 1982 filmed musical "One From The Heart."

The movie bombed both critically and commercially, but its soundtrack — full of torch songs meant to convey the thoughts of a pair of star-crossed lovers — still contains some of the most daring and under-appreciated work of both artists. Gayle's fluid voice shines particularly on "Picking Up After You" and "Old Boyfriends." Waits and Gayle's duet on "This One's From The Heart" is as gorgeous and unique a ballad from the era as you're likely to hear.

"Our voices — even though they were so different — really blended. I think it worked because they were so different. I had always loved his voice, so it was just incredible working with him," Gayle said.

Gayle's run of crossover hits dried up after 1982's No. 7 pop smash and wedding staple, "You And I," a sweet and simple duet with the late Eddie Rabbitt. Still, Gayle managed to continue her streak of No. 1 and Top 10 country hits well into the late 1980s, before slowing down her touring and recording in 1990 to raise a family.

Gayle has been married to manager Bill Gatzimos since 1971, and the couple has two children, Catherine, 18, and Chris, 15. The whole clan will be coming to Hawai'i to watch Mom work one of the more special of the 100 or so concert dates she still does each year across the United States.

The vocalist insisted that she still gets a kick out of watching and listening to concert audiences sing the songs she made famous.

"It's great when people know your songs even better than you do," said Gayle, laughing. "If you forget the words, you know somebody else will remember them."