“Cry”
Crystal Gayle
Written by Churchill Kohlman
Billboard
#1 (1 week)
October 25, 1986
The fifties revival continues on country radio, reaching an apex with Crystal Gayle’s stunning performance of the pop standard “Cry.”
It had already been a country hit via Lynn Anderson, who took it to the top five in the early seventies. Anderson’s anguished performance leaned into the heartache of having a good cry. Crystal Gayle’s interpretation is more of a liberation. She has to get past her heartache, and after a good cry, she’s going back out to conquer the world.
Gayle’s penchant for sophisticated material and her innate understanding for how to best interpret a lyric combined for a long career of records that were excellent, even if they didn’t showcase her remarkable range as a singer. On “Cry,” she makes clear that this Kentucky girl of humble origins could have her way with the best of Tin Pan Alley from back in the day. She just preferred to tackle the work of the Music Row songwriters who were her contemporaries.
How fitting that in one of her final trips to No. 1, she was able to fully showcase her power as a singer, giving country radio a taste of what it would be missing when it soon left her behind.
“Cry” gets an A.
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This was one of her finest moments vocally IMO. I wasn’t familiar with the song, although my parents were.
It was my Dad who was the biggest Crystal fan in our family. We owned every tape or album she put out. We regularly drove to the nearest city, Beaumont Texas, to eat out and shop. The drive was a little over an hour and we would listen to Marty Robbins, Dolly Parton, Kenny Rogers, Anne Murray, and the Statler Brothers. But we mostly listened to Crystal Gayle.
It’s been so wonderful reading these reviews and comments that recognize what a talent she is. This song in particular showcases what a power house singer she is. Don’t It Make My Brown Eyes Blue is an incredible song and her hair is beautiful, but she is much more than just those two things.
We’ll see her one more time before country radio foolishly dropped her. Thanks so much, Kevin, for this feature.
I have no recollection whatsoever of this being a chart single in the ’80s. I just don’t remember it being in heavy rotation on K-102.
Which is not to say it wasn’t, it’s just that I have always catalogued this song in my mind as an earlier hit from the late ’70s.
Maybe it has always sounded like a classic to my ears and I just wanted to age it accordingly.
My confusion aside, this is a stunning vocal performance, a breathtaking bridge between the past and the present.
It’s wild that so many ’80s stars- at the peak of their career and artistry – were unknowingly also so dangerously close to being pushed aside for the next generation of country music stars.
It’s cruel somehow. It just don’t seem right.