“If You Leave Me Tonight I’ll Cry”
Jerry Wallace
Written by Hal Mooney and Gerald Sanford
Billboard
#1 (1 week)
August 26, 1972
So why this song?
Jerry Wallace had a lengthy career, starting as a mid-level pop act and transitioning into a mid-level country act.
Then he exploded in popularity in 1972 on the strength of “If You Leave Me Tonight I’ll Cry.” It may be his only number one country hit, but it raised his profile enough to produce two number one country albums in its wake.
But why this song?
It’s a fine composition that he sings beautifully over a staid and dated production. The background singers are so loud that they threaten to drown him out, but he has enough strength as a vocalist to stay in control.
I still can’t tell you why this song. It’s a fine effort that somehow became a career record for him. I like it just fine, but it’s a great example of how the charts measure a specific moment in time. He has several other hits that didn’t top the charts but are streamed far more often than this one.
I’m happy that he had a number one record to show for his long and underrated run as a recording artist.
So in the end, why not this song?
“If You Leave Me Tonight I’ll Cry” gets a B+.
Every No. 1 Single of the Seventies
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I’m going to agree with the why this song. After that absolute classic by Charley Pride it’s hard to see or hear why this song would get a B+. Subjective I know but I listened and was surprised. Nice song but I wouldn’t call it great or anything.
This would have been fine for an album cut but it surprises me that this song would go to #1 at a time when there were so many great country songs released. Grade “C”.
I think the popularity of this song (as it also reached #39 on the Hot 100) was that it was featured in a segment of the short-lived Rod Serling horror anthology series Night Gallery entitled “The Tune In Dan’s Cafe”, in which a jukebox plays that particular song over and over again, and which refers to a romance that took a tragic turn at that diner years before. In fact, Gerald Sanford, one of the writers of “If You Leave Me Tonight I’ll Cry”, also co-wrote that particular segment (which aired on January 5, 1972).
In all good honesty, <i?Night Gallery, which ran on NBC from 1970 to 1973, was Serling’s swan-song (he passed away in June 1975 at the all-too-early age of 50), and not remotely comparable to his legendary show The Twilight Zone. However, the pilot film for the show, which came in late 1969, was notable for having a segment featuring Joan Crawford in one of her last major roles, and with a then 22 year-old “kid” from Arizona named Steven Spielberg directing her (his first professional gig).
Night Gallery was a pretty decent show and while it was not a top 20 show it had decent enough ratings to last two seasons. I happened to see “The Tune In Dan’s Cafe” episode first-run, and it was one of those songs that grows on you the more you hear it. The network got so many inquiries about the “If You Leave Me Tonight (I’ll Cry)” that Decca was forced to release it as a single. I think that Jerry Wallace would have been more than a mid-level star had Billboard started its Easy Listening charts a few years earlier. Such earlier songs as “Primrose Lane”, “How Time Flies” and “In The Misty Moonlight” were substantial hits.
Record World had both “Do You Know What It’s Like To Be Lonesome” and “Don’t Give Up On Me” reaching #1 with Cash Box also having “Don’t Give Up On Me” reach #1.
I saw Jerry perform live before his country success – he was a great singer and entertainer
I had never heard of Jerry Wallace before I looked this song up. I can’t believe he had a steady chart presence from 1959 to 1980, yet seemingly left zero impact on pop culture.
Maybe it’s because I knew going in that this song was written for a TV episode by a guy who mainly wrote TV episodes, but the clunky sappy lyrics just had “written by committee” all over them. It’s got that weird half-verse, half-chorus structure that I thought had already fallen out of favor by this point, in a way that reminds me of “Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)”. I also find the production horribly dated production and overwrought vocals remind me of what Kevin (and I) disliked about David Houston’s “Baby, Baby (I Know You’re a Lady)” at the start of this feature. That last “take my heart” made me cringe with how theatrically he sings it. Every aspect of this song sounds at least five to ten years out of date to me.
Every other song of his I looked up just sounded like Bobby Goldsboro trying to be Perry Como trying to be David Houston. Maybe this gloppy overproduced 60s easy listening just isn’t for me.