“If You Leave Me Tonight I’ll Cry” (1972) – Jerry Wallace

“If You Leave Me Tonight I’ll Cry” (1972) – Jerry Wallace * Written by Gerald Sanford and Hal Mooney * 45: “If You Leave Me Tonight I’ll Cry” / “What’s He Doin’ in My World?” * LP: To Get to You * Produced by Joe E. Johnson * Label: Decca

The TV show Rod Serling’s Night Gallery, which aired from 1969 to 1973, had a format similar to The Twilight Zone, with Serling as the host introducing creepy tales with twist endings. An episode called “The Tune in Dan’s Cafe” spawned the Jerry Wallace 1972 country #1 hit “If You Leave Me Tonight I’ll Cry.” The episode told the story of a jukebox that played the same record over and over again due to its being haunted by the ghost of a jilted lover. After the episode ran in January of ’72, radio stations received enough requests for the nonexistent record to prompt an official release by vocalist Wallace, who’d had moderate pop chart success until the mid-sixties, when he’d shifted gears to country. This overbaked hit version—barely listenable today—is sadly inferior to Wallace’s unavailable TV version, which had a harder country sound.