"Wrong Road Again" is a country song written by songwriter Richard Leigh

Richard Leigh (songwriter)

Richard Leigh is an American country music songwriter and singer. He is best known for penning "Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue" . In 1978 he received a Grammy Award for "Best Country Song" for the popular song...

 and was Crystal Gayle

Crystal Gayle

Crystal Gayle is an American country music singer best known for her 1977 country-pop hit, "Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue". An award-winning singer, she accumulated 18 number one country hits during the 1970s and 1980s...

's first hit song. It was released in September 1974.

In the mid-1970s, country music was making its move into pop music by artists such as Lynn Anderson

Lynn Anderson

Lynn Rene Anderson is an American country music singer and equestrian known for a string of hits throughout the 1970s and early 1980s, most notably her Grammy Award-winning, worldwide mega-hit, " Rose Garden." Helped by her regular exposure on national television, Anderson was one of the most...

 and Eddie Rabbitt

Eddie Rabbitt

Edward Thomas "Eddie" Rabbitt was an American singer-songwriter and musician. His career began as a songwriter in the late 1960s, springboarding to a recording career after composing hits such as "Kentucky Rain" for Elvis Presley in 1970 and "Pure Love" for Ronnie Milsap in 1974...

. The song "Wrong Road Again" is a set example of this. Even though the song never crossed over into the pop charts, the instruments used in the sessions were not instruments normally used in country music. Crystal Gayle at the time was working to set a name for herself in the music business. "Wrong Road Again" became the song to help jumpstart her career as a country singer. The song became Gayle's first Top Ten single and showed what was to come from her in the next couple of years.

Cover versions

English singer Marianne Faithfull

Marianne Faithfull

Marianne Evelyn Faithfull is an award-winning English singer, songwriter and actress whose career has spanned five decades....

 recorded a cover of the song on her country-flavoured album Dreamin' My Dreams

Dreamin' My Dreams (Marianne Faithfull album)

Dreamin' My Dreams is a 1976 album by singer Marianne Faithfull. It is Faithfull's first and only record of country music. The album was re-released two years later in 1978 as Faithless. The main difference between the albums is the album art, and some tracks are rearranged...

 in 1976 on Mike Leander

Mike Leander

Michael George Farr professionally known as Mike Leander was an arranger and record producer for Decca Records in the 1960s and Bell Records in the 1970s and worked with such artists as Marianne Faithfull, Billy Fury, Marc Bolan, Joe Cocker, The Small Faces, Van Morrison, Alan Price, Peter...

's NEMS label. (The album was later retitled "Faithless" and re-released in 1977, with a few track substitutions.) Besides "Wrong Road Again," the album featured the Allen Reynolds

Allen Reynolds

Allen Reynolds is an American record producer and songwriter who works primarily in the country music field.Reynolds was born in North Little Rock, Arkansas and started writing songs during his college years...

-penned title track, which had also previously been recorded by Gayle and by Waylon Jennings

Waylon Jennings

Waylon Arnold Jennings was an American country music singer, songwriter, and musician. Jennings began playing at eight. He began performing at twelve, on KVOW radio. Jennings formed a band The Texas Longhorns. Jennings worked as a D.J on KVOW, KDAV and KLLL...

.

Chart performance

Chart (1974–1975)	Peak position
U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles	6
Canadian RPM Country Tracks	17