Her lack of major chart hits didn't change the fact that she was one of the biggest-selling artists in country music at that time. After "One Day at a Time" topped the country chart in 1980, she went on to have a number of additional secular hits, although only one of them reached the country Top 20. The religious "One Day at a Time" opened the door for Lane to become a contemporary Christian artist, but she didn't make the switchover immediately.
Lane's earliest country hits-including the Top 10 hits " Let Me Down Easy," " I'm Gonna Love You Anyway," " Penny Arcade," and " I Just Can't Stay Married to You"-were originally released on LS Records, but when Lane signed with United Artists (UA) Records in 1979, UA acquired the earlier LS masters. One of these labels, LS Records, is run by Lane's husband, Lee Stoller. Nevertheless, she subsequently has released some of these songs on her own labels. Some of these songs were sexy, like "Sweet Sexy Eyes" and "Cheatin' Is Still on My Mind," so they're inconsistent with her later image as a Christian artist. EMI gained ownership of these recordings and released a number of Lane's Liberty and UA recordings on CD over the years, but they can be hard to find because so many of her CDs have similar titles and track lists.īefore Lane became a contemporary Christian artist, she was a mainstream country artist who charted a number of national country hits. From the late 1980s onward, LS Records saturated the market with so many Cristy Lane releases and re-recordings that Lane's original Liberty and United Artists (UA) recordings got lost in the flood.