Remembering Keith Whitley Twenty-Eight Years After his Death

It was on this date, May 9th, in 1989 that country music lost a legend when Keith Whitley passed away at the age of 33.

A songwriter and singer whose music is still loved today, and serves as an inspiration to so many contemporary country acts.

His first Top 20 Country Hit single, “Miami, My Amy”, was released in 1986. In 1988, his first three singles from Don’t Close Your Eyes, the title track, “When You Say Nothing at All,” and “I’m No Stranger to the Rain,” all went on to be No. 1. Two of his singles were released posthumously, “I Wonder Do You Think of Me” and “It Ain’t Nothin'.”

All in, Whitley charted 19 singles on the Billboard country charts in his abbreviated career.