Search - Gayle Crystal :: Best of

A mix of hits and rarities

Peter Durward Harris | Leicester England | 08/11/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Among the singing Webb sisters, Loretta Lynn has apparently achieved greater fame and recognition in America but it is her much younger sister, Crystal Gayle (real name Brenda Gail Webb) who has achieved greater international acclaim, especially in Britain.



This collection is compiled from Crystal's recordings for United Artists in the seventies (the music most people remember her for), together with a few of her Capitol tracks from the early nineties. It is not a definitive collection as several classic songs are omitted, but with forty tracks it provides plenty of entertainment. You may wish to buy a hits collection to go with this to obtain I'll get over you, When I dream, Ready for the times to get better, You never miss a real good thing, all of which you might expect to find here. Nevertheless, their absence allows many rare tracks to be included, all of which are brilliant.



In total, Crystal had eighteen number one hits on the American country charts although only six of them were with United Artists and only three of those are here. However, her two major international pop hits (Don't it make my brown eyes blue, Talking in your sleep) were with United Artists and they are, of course, included here along with Why have you let the one you left me for, Somebody loves you, Wrong road again, River road, I'm not so far away, Right in the palm of your hand, High time and We must believe in magic, just to name a few of the great original songs here. Also here is Crystal's original recording of What he's doing now. Though written by Garth Brooks, he only recorded it (as What she's doing now) a year or so after Crystal's version was first released.



Crystal showed her interest in a wide variety of material as is evident in her choice of oldies that she covered. These included Green door (a fifties classic, revived by Shakin' Stevens in the eighties), Wayward wind (a fifties hit in America for Gogi Grant and a sixties hit in Britain for Frank Ifield), Someday soon (an Ian Tyson song first popularised by Judy Collins), Never ending song of love (New Seekers), Faithless love (Linda Ronstadt) and Cry me a river (Julie London).



While not as strong as the double-CD released in the UK some years ago (EMI country masters - 50 original tracks), this is a great compilation that contains plenty of tracks not otherwise currently available."