Rodney’s version was the only one either Gayle or her producer Jimmy Bowen had heard, though, when they decided to record it for Crystal’s debut Electra album, “True Love” – not that it would have mattered. Bowen didn’t care if a song had already been recorded by someone else. Other producers would sometimes pass on a song if it had been previously cut by another artist, but it didn’t matter to him. He cited his first success as a producer: Dean Martin’s signature hit, “Everybody Loves Somebody,” which had already been recorded by no less than a dozen artists (including a cut by Frank Sinatra, which went nowhere), but Martin’s version broke through and knocked The Beatles’ “A Hard Day’s Night” off its #1 perch on the Billboard Hot 100 pop chart August 15, 1964.
Gayle liked “’Til I Gain Control Again” a lot and, like Bowen, didn’t care if the song had been done before. But she had reservations. She initially thought that the song just “didn’t sound like her” and commenced to toss it aside, but Jimmy convinced her to record it. Rodney Crowell was on hand at the session to add backing vocals and Crystal’s cut nestled in at #1 on Billboard’s country singles chart on February 12, 1983, marking Gayle’s eleventh of her eighteen chart-toppers.
