<Table> <Tr> <Td> "Don't Close Your Eyes" (1988) </Td> <Td> "When You Say Nothing at All" (1988) </Td> <Td> "I'm No Stranger to the Rain" (1989) </Td> </Tr> </Table> <Tr> <Td> "Don't Close Your Eyes" (1988) </Td> <Td> "When You Say Nothing at All" (1988) </Td> <Td> "I'm No Stranger to the Rain" (1989) </Td> </Tr> <P> "When You Say Nothing at All" is a country song written by Paul Overstreet and Don Schlitz . It is among the best - known hit songs for three different performers: Keith Whitley, who took it to the top of the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart on December 24, 1988; Alison Krauss, whose version was her first solo top - 10 country hit in 1995; and Irish pop singer Ronan Keating, whose version was his first solo single and a chart - topper in the United Kingdom and Ireland in 1999 . </P> <P> Overstreet and Schlitz came up with "When You Say Nothing at All" at the end of an otherwise unproductive day . Strumming a guitar, trying to write their next song, they were coming up empty . "As we tried to find another way to say nothing, we came up with the song," Overstreet later told author Ace Collins . They thought the song was OK, but nothing special . When Keith Whitley heard it, he loved it, and was not going to let it get away . Earlier, he had recorded another Overstreet - Schlitz composition that became a No. 1 hit for another artist - Randy Travis' "On the Other Hand ." Whitley did not plan to let "When You Say Nothing at All" meet the same fate . </P>

Composer of when you say nothing at all