Crystal Gayle - "It's Like We Never Said Goodbye"

(Debuted February 23, 1980, Peaked #63, 3 Weeks on the Chart)

Once again, this blog returns to 1980 to begin another round of reviews. In that vein, there is hardly a better title to reload the decade with than this one.

Crystal Gayle was a country singer (and as Loretta Lynn's younger sister, she was well-suited for it), but had a versatile voice that let her get several crossover hits as well. In the case of the piano and the smoky-room atmosphere of "Don't it Make My Brown Eyes Blue" (a #2 hit in 1977), she was able to straddle the  line between country and pop; in the case of "It's Like We Never Said Goodbye," the results weren't as solid.

A song about getting over a relationship gone sour, it was a universal topic. Even in a year where crossover success was easy (Kenny Rogers, Dolly Parton and Eddie Rabbitt would get #1 pop hits and Urban Cowboy sent seven singles into the Top 40), success wasn't guaranteed for everybody. That's too bad, as it is a very good song.

Despite its poor showing on the pop chart, it was one of the eighteen songs she took to #1 on the country chart. In fact, the week "It's Like We Never Said Goodbye" reached the top position on that chart, it was part of a Top 5 that featured female vocalists on all the singles (though one was a duet between George Jones and Tammy Wynette), the first time that had ever happened in the country genre.