Crystal Gayle carved out a music career for herself 10 years after her older sister, Loretta Lynn, signed her first record deal in 1960. Gayle, who is best known for her 1977 country-pop hit "Don't It Make Your Brown Eyes Blue," accumulated 20 No. 1 country hits throughout the 1970s and 1980s -- but the Grammy-winning singer remembers just how it felt to hear her first single, "I Cried the Blue Right Out of My Eyes," on the radio for the first time.

I was in the car, driving down the road, and, actually, it was good that there weren't any other cars around ... I might have wrecked! It was just so exciting. You lose yourself when you're hearing it; it's like, "Wow!"

It was my very first record, which was "I Cried the Blue Right Out of My Eyes." It came out in 1970. It was a huge thrill to hear it for the first time!

[Lynn's] best advice to me was to quit singing her songs. I sang every one of them. She said, "We have one Loretta Lynn, we don't need another."

Even though I loved singing all her songs, I knew I had to be something totally different. She was right; she knew. It's very hard in this business to be a sibling and to make it following in the footsteps.

This story was originally written by Pat Gallagher, and revised by Angela Stefano.

More From KXRB