Crystal "hits" in Times Square in NYC

CRYSTAL RELEASES NEW HITS PACKAGE AUG. 28, 2007

(07/23/2007) - Crystal Gayle will release a 25-track greatest-hits collection, covering her 30-year career, on August 28. The album will include "Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue," one of the 10 most often performed country songs of the 20th century, along with her 21 other Top 10 singles and 16 No. 1 hits. Three new Crystal Gayle ringtones will also debut on August 28.

Crystal, born Brenda Gail Webb in Paintsville, Ky., and raised in the small town of Wabash, Ind., recalls: "My mother said I could sing before I could walk. Music was a form of entertainment. People would sit on their porches and play their guitars, mandolins, banjos, and that's what we did to pass the time."

Crystal's sister, Loretta Lynn, not only helped negotiate her first record deal, she also wrote her first single and created her new name. "When I started recording, Brenda Lee was on the same label and they didn't want two Brendas," Crystal says, "so Loretta thought of Crystal. She saw it on that Southern hamburger chain, Krystal's, although she also said it was because I was bright and shiny. I didn't care what they called me if I was going to get to record. They could have called me John."

Crystal scored her first No. 1 In 1976 with "I'll Get Over You," written by Richard Leigh, who also wrote her signature hit, "Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue." The song won her countless accolades, including a Grammy Award for Best Female Country Performance, and also brought her widespread crossover attention when it rose to No. 1 on pop charts worldwide. Her album, We Must Believe in Magic, was the first by a female country artist to achieve platinum sales.

"A lot of people think I had 'Brown Eyes' right out of the box, and I don't know how I would have handled things if that had happened," Crystal says. "Having the songs build and then having a song like that was a great way for it to happen."

Crystal's duet with Eddie Rabbitt, "You And I," reinforced both artists' crossover appeal. "Eddie had already recorded the song with his vocals and asked me to do harmony on it. But when I heard it, I told him I could do a little more than harmony if he liked," she laughs. "And it turned into a duet. It is a really special song. I love singing it and I miss being able to sing it with Eddie," she says of the artist, who passed away in 1998.

"I don't really think about the success I have had," Crystal says of her career. "I enjoy singing, and having the success I have had has been the icing on the cake. It's opened so many doors. I have gotten to travel the world, I have met so many wonderful people and made so many friends, and I have been able to touch so many people with the songs."