Alison Krauss & Union Station- When You Say Nothing At All

The year is 1988.
Songwriters Paul Overstreet and John Schlitz had spent the day together trying to write their next song. 
It hadn't been very productive.
At the end of the day, while trying to come up with "another way to say nothing" (sounds like a Seinfeld episode), they birthed this song.  They thought it was "nothing special".
Country singer Keith Whitley heard the song and fell in love with it.  He had recorded another Overstreet/Schlitz composition, "On the Other Hand", which later became a number one hit for Randy Travis.
He thought this one might be a chart topper for himself.
He was right.
It entered the Country Singles chart in September of 1989 at number 61, and gradually rose to the top, where it stayed for two weeks at the end of that year.
It was the second of five consecutive chart-topping singles for Whitley, who did not live to see the last two, as he died on May 9, 1989 of alcohol poisoning.
In 1994, Alison Krauss recorded the song for a tribute album for Whitley.  The Krauss version peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart.
Krauss' recording won the 1995 CMA award for "Single of the Year".
More importantly, it is my wife's favorite Alison Krauss song.