Born in Paintsville, Kentucky to a poor family, Brenda Gail Webb would have a unique upbringing that'd untimely help shape her to become the cross-over country singer Crystal Gayle. The youngest of eight children--well-known singing phenom Loretta Lynn, Gail's sister, was the second of the eight--Gail was the family's only child to be born in a hospital. Her family would go on to move to Wabash, Indiana when she was four and although she was initially shy, her mother would encourage her to sing songs for visitors who were passing through the family's house. Inspired by her sister's burgeoning career as a singer/songwriter, Gale picked up a guitar and learned how to play. After writing a few songs, Lynn helped secure a recording contract for her younger sibling and helped her with a proper stage name that people would remember, after driving by a Krystal Hamburgers chain and being stuck by the impressive locution of the word Krystal, which eventually turned into Crystal. Though she struggled to find a sizable listening base during her formative career as a singer, Gayle managed to find cross-over appeal in the late 1970s and even managed to duet with alternative crooner Tom Waits on the soundtrack to the 1982 Francis Ford Coppola film One From the Heart.
