In June of 1977, Crystal Gayle released what would become her biggest major success with the teary-eyed ballad “Don’t It Make My Brown Eyes Blue.”
The classic country hit, written by Richard Leigh, who had penned a previous hit for Gayle, features a jazzy feel, a sway-worthy beat, gentle piano, and sweeping strings. Lyrically, “Don’t It Make My Brown Eyes Blue” finds Gayle regretfully crooning over a breakup while reflecting on the way she treated her once other half.
But it’s Gayle’s warm and silky set of vocals, which stand out over the dreamy accompaniment.
Despite her dramatically sultry vocals on the track, the tune wasn’t originally meant for Gayle. According toAmerican Songwriter, “Don’t It Make My Brown Eyes Blue” was initially penned for Welsh singer Shirley Bassey. Once it fell into Gayle’s hands, she felt the song belonged to her, and it only took a single take at Jack’s Tracks recording studio in Nashville to be ready for release.
“That was a first take,” Gayle told Billboardin a previous interview. “I did not re-sing it. It just fell into place, beginning with Pig Robbins‘ opening work on the piano. It was magic in the studio that day.”
Interestingly, the inspiration for the tune didn’t come from a once-romantic relationship that seemingly fell apart, but rather from an experience the songwriter had with his pet dog, Amanda.
According toCountryThangDaily, Leigh came up with the idea for the song after noticing the color of his dog’s eyes — a detail confirmed by Gayle in a 2004 interview on Country Music Television. The story goes that Leigh’s pup had lost the color in one brown eye after a trash collector threw rocks at the four-legged friend, leaving the animal with one blue and one brown eye.
Belonging on her fourth studio album, We Must Believe In Magic, “Don’t It Make My Brown Eyes Blue” has gone on to become Gayle’s signature hit. The ballad topped the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, where it remained for four weeks, and also became a major pop crossover success, reaching No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song also made a major impact overseas, becoming Gayle’s only Top 5 hit in the UK.
Additionally, the song won Gayle a Grammy Award for Best Female Country Vocal Performance in 1978, and landed at No. 109 on Rolling Stone’s ranked list of 200 Greatest Country Songs of All Time in 2024.
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