For all the young whipper snappers who think Ronan Keating was the original artist doing ‘When You Say Nothing At All.’ Keith Whitley did the original version of the song in the 1980’s. And, Allison Kraus in the 1990’s.
Keith Whitley was one of the group of country music musicians that brought “new” country music into the spotlight in the early 80`s.Keith, along with such others as Hank Williams Jr., Garth Brooks, George Strait, Reba MacEntire, and Allison Kraus, just to name a few gapped the bridge that existed between conventional country and the new breed of performers.
More about ‘When You Say Nothing At All’
“When You Say Nothing at All” is a country song written by Paul Overstreet and Don Schlitz. It was a hit song for three different performers: Keith Whitley, who took it to the top of the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart on December 24, 1988; Alison Krauss, whose version was her first solo top-10 country hit in 1995; and Irish pop singer Ronan Keating, whose version was his first solo single and a chart-topper in the United Kingdom, Ireland and New Zealand in 1999.