Cry Me a River (Arthur Hamilton song)

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"Cry Me a River"
One of 1950s sheet musics
Song
Published1953
Songwriter(s)Arthur Hamilton

"Cry Me a River" is a popular American torch song, written by Arthur Hamilton, first published in 1953 and made famous in 1955 with the version by Julie London.

In 2001, the Julie London version of "Cry Me a River" was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.[1]

Origins and early recordings

Arthur Hamilton later said of the song: "I had never heard the phrase. I just liked the combination of words... Instead of 'Eat your heart out' or 'I'll get even with you,' it sounded like a good, smart retort to somebody who had hurt your feelings or broken your heart." He was initially concerned that listeners would hear a reference to the Crimea, rather than "..cry me a...", but said that "..sitting down and playing the melody and coming up with lyrics made it a nonissue."[2]

A bluesy

Pete Kelly's Blues (released 1955). According to Hamilton, he and Julie London had been high school classmates, and she contacted him on behalf of her husband, Jack Webb, who was the film's director and was looking for new songs for its soundtrack.[3]
After the song was dropped from the film, Fitzgerald first released her version on
A&R chief Mitch Miller objected to the word "plebeian" in the lyric.[4][5]

The song's first release was by actress and singer Julie London on

gold record, and in 2016, it was inducted by the Library of Congress in the National Recording Registry.[7]

Notable recordings

One site, SecondHandSongs, lists 658 recorded versions of the song (as at September 2023).[8] Versions that charted include:

References

  1. ^ "GRAMMY HALL OF FAME AWARD". www.grammy.com. Retrieved 2023-07-17.
  2. ^ John Berlau, "Crying a River for Years", The Wall Street Journal, December 15, 2010. Retrieved January 14, 2016
  3. ^ a b "Billboard". 11 November 2000. Retrieved 1 May 2021 – via Google Books.
  4. ^ "PEGGY KING & ANDY KAHN - "Cry Me A River" at Metropolitan Room NYC 2-23-14". YouTube. Retrieved 4 October 2014.
  5. ^ Lang, Joe (June 2014). "Caught in the Act" (PDF). Jersey Jazz. 42 (6): 46. Retrieved 28 July 2019.
  6. ^ Cary O'Dell, "“Cry Me a River”—Julie London (1955)", Library of Congress. Retrieved March 7, 2020
  7. ^ "National Recording Registry Recognizes "Mack the Knife," Motown and Mahler". Loc.gov.
  8. ^ "Original versions of Cry Me a River written by Arthur Hamilton | SecondHandSongs". secondhandsongs.com. Retrieved 2023-10-02.
  9. ISBN 0-89820-115-2
    .
  10. ^ "Joe Cocker". Billboard. Retrieved 1 May 2021.
  11. ^ a b c "Cry Me a River". Official Charts Company.

External links

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