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Music by Hal Mooney / Lyrics by Gerald Sanford
The tale of a haunted jukebox and postponed revenge for a fatal betrayal inspired a surprise hit for Night Gallery. Having overhauled another writer's work, script doctor Gerald Sanford was assigned by the producer to write the lyrics for the song on the jukebox. Sanford tossed off a few stanzas which were then set to music by Gallery's music supervisor Hal Mooney. A version was recorded with vocals sung by pop singer Jerry Wallace ("Primrose Lane"), but the director assigned to the script, David Rawlins, wanted the song rearranged as a honky-tonk weeper. Sessions were set up to rerecord the instrumental tracks. The resulting song, "If You Leave Me Tonight I'll Cry," became an overnight hit, receiving heavy phone-in requests at radio stations and charting at Number One on the Billboard Country and Western sales rankings for three weeks in a row. The song remained on the charts for over three months.
