Crystal Gayle’s ‘You Never Miss a Good Thing Until He Says Goodbye’ came from out of nowhere
This week in 1976: the state of New Jersey approved Las Vegasstyle casinos for Atlantic City; The United States and Vietnam began the first talks since the fall of Saigon; Chrysler Corporation received a $4.9 billion contract to build tanks for the U.S. Army; and a singer from Paintsville, Ken., had her 11th hit record.
Some songs seem to come out of nowhere and according to Bob McDill—Crystal Gayle’s 1976 No. 1 “You Never Miss a Good Thing Until He Says Goodbye” was one of those tunes.
McDill commented, “That’s one of those songs that I have no idea where it came from—it just came. I was sitting in my office one day with nothing really on my mind. I wasn’t thinking about anything—was not thinking about songs or writing songs. And I don’t know why but I just started writing the song. There was no rhyme or reason for it, I just started writing. I don’t think I had an idea or a title or anything to start with. I just started writing—and when I stopped writing, I had written that song—for no reason. It just happened and I just wrote it. So I guess you could say that the song just came out of nowhere!”
Crystal Gayle’s United Artists single “You Never Miss A Good Thing Until He Says Goodbye” came on the country music charts Nov. 6, 1976 and made it to No. 1.
It was her 11th charted song and her second No. 1. The single was on the charts for 16 weeks.
Crystal Gayle placed 52 songs on the country charts between 1970 and 1990, including duets with Eddie Rabbitt and Gary Morris. Seventeen of her 52 charted singles made it to No. 1. Twelve of her charted records also scored on the pop music charts. She was the CMA Female Vocalist Of The Year in 1977 and 1978.