| "Cry Me a River" | |||||||||||||||||
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| Single by Justin Timberlake featuring Timbaland | |||||||||||||||||
| from the album Justified | |||||||||||||||||
| Released | December 28, 2002 (U.S. Top 40 entry) | ||||||||||||||||
| Format | Digital download, CD single, 12" single | ||||||||||||||||
| Recorded | 2002 | ||||||||||||||||
| Genre | Pop, R&B | ||||||||||||||||
| Length | 4:48 | ||||||||||||||||
| Label | Jive | ||||||||||||||||
| Writer(s) | Justin Timberlake | ||||||||||||||||
| Producer | Timbaland and Scott Storch | ||||||||||||||||
| Certification | Silver France[1] | ||||||||||||||||
| Justin Timberlake singles chronology | |||||||||||||||||
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"Cry Me a River" is the second single from Justin Timberlake's solo debut album Justified. Released on December 17, 2002, the single, which features guest vocals and production by Timbaland & Scott Storch, won Timberlake a Grammy Award for "Best Male Pop Vocal Performance" in 2004. The song title comes from "Cry Me a River", written in 1953 by Arthur Hamilton and sung by Julie London in the cult Jayne Mansfield movie The Girl Can't Help It.
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Background information
The song is supposedly a re-telling of Timberlake's split with Britney Spears. Including accusations of her infidelity with lyrics like, "You don't have to say what you did/I already know, I found out from him/Now there's just no chance, for you and me, there'll never be/And don't it make you sad about it." The music video, directed by Francis Lawrence, depicts him exacting revenge upon Spears, portrayed by Lauren Hastings, by breaking into her house and filming himself with another woman kissing passionately, and watching as she returns to find the video playing on her television. The video's success started a feud between producer Timbaland and Scott Storch, who claimed he was uncredited for producing (the booklet credits him as clavinet player and writer). Also, even though publicly uncredited, Benjamin Wright did string arrangements in this song. [2]
Reaction
Rumors of Britney Spears cheating as the underlying reason of their breakup eight months before had been surfacing for a while, and for many, the song and the music video confirmed their beliefs. US Weekly ran a cover story, titled "Britney Vs. Justin: The War Is On", immediately after the release of the video. Timberlake, however, said, "The video is not about her. The video is about me." [3]
Yet according to Spears' account in an October 2003 Rolling Stone interview,[4] she received a call from Timberlake saying he supposedly wanted to get back together with her and craftily added on that she was in a music video with him saying, "Don't worry about it. It's not a big deal." Spears, who had not seen the video, admits to naively allowing him to do so and became infuriated after watching the video upon its promotion. When she later asked about why he made such a defaming video of her, Timberlake replied according to Spears, "Well, I got a controversial video." She retorted, "You did. [Claps her hands, as if for a dog that just performed a trick.] Yay for you." She acknowledged it was a great publicity stunt commenting, "So he got what he wanted. I think it looks like such a desperate attempt, personally. But that was a great way to sell the record. He's smart [laughs]. Smart guy."
In 2003, it was rumored that Britney supposedly responded by the single "Everytime" from her album In the Zone and that the song lyrics indicate that the song is a sorry gesture with the lyrics "please forgive me, my weakness caused you pain, and this song is my sorry". However, Spears denied this rumor and commented that there was no response track to Timberlake's "Cry Me a River" in this album.
Reception
The song was very well received by fans and critics alike. Aside from all the allegations that the song and video were about his split with Britney Spears, the song became Timberlake's breakthrough track and helped propelled him to individual mainstream success. Cry Me A River became hit very quickly and a classic almost instantly. It would also lead Timberlake to his first of many individual grammy awards. It is often considered by fans his finest work.
Track Listings
US Maxi-CD
- Cry Me A River [Album Version]
- Cry Me A River [Instrumental]
- Cry Me A River [Dirty Vegas Vocal Mix]
- Cry Me A River [Junior's Vasquez Earth Club Mix]
- Like I Love you [Basement Jaxx Vocal Mix]
- Like I Love you [Deep Dish Zigzag Remix]
Pt. 1 [SINGLE]
- Cry Me A River [Original Version]
- Cry Me A River [Dirty Vegas Vocal Remix]
- Cry Me A River [Bill Hamel Vocal Remix]
- Cry Me A River [Enhanced Video]
Europe Single
- Cry Me a River [Album Version]
- Cry Me a River [Dirty Vegas Vocal Mix]
- Cry Me a River [Bill Hamel Vocal Remix]
- Like I Love You [Basement Jaxx Vocal Mix]
US Vinyl, 12"[5]
- Cry Me A River [Dirty Vegas Vocal Mix] 8:11
- Cry Me A River [Dirty Vegas Dub] 7:39
- Cry Me A River [Johnny Fiasco's Electric Karma Mix] 7:51
- Cry Me A River [Bill Hamel Justinough Vocal Mix] 7:43
Remixes/official versions
- Album Version - 4:47
- Official Remix featuring 50 Cent - 4:52
Music video
The video begins with a blond woman, whose face is never seen but is supposedly meant to be Britney Spears, walking out of her house hand-in-hand with an unidentified man. The couple leaves in her car as Timberlake rolls down the window of the car he's watching her in. He breaks into the house by throwing a rock through a window and proceeds to walk through the house, not breaking or causing any other visible damage, except for a picture which he kicks across the room. A women who was in the car with him at the beginning of the video follows him inside. Timberlake finds a video camera in a drawer and he and the woman go to his ex's bedroom, where they videotape themselves having sex. The woman leaves as Justin's ex returns, he follows her around the house then hides in a closet as she takes a shower. As he gets closer to her, eventually touching the glass surrounding of the shower, she senses someone else in the room and turns around but Timberlake is gone. She leaves the bathroom and goes into her bedroom, where the video made by Justin and his new lover is playing on the television as the music video ends.
Chart performance
"Cry Me a River" peaked at #3 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 on January 21, 2003, and was - at that point - Timberlake's most successful single, until "Sexyback" reached the number-one position in 2006. In the UK, "Cry Me a River" peaked at #2 for two consecutive weeks (part of a long string of singles for Timberlake to just miss hitting the top, broken by "Sexyback" in 2006). In Australia, "Cry Me a River" debuted (and peaked) at #2 on the ARIA singles chart. In Indonesia, "Cry Me a River" was peaked at number two for seven non-consecutive weeks. Three weeks of that stuck behind Beautiful from Christina Aguilera, following week, the song drop to number eight. But, the next week the song rose to number four and rose again to number two, and stuck again there for 4 weeks, behind Avril Lavigne's I'm With You. The song ended the chart with being the 17th Top 100 Year-End in the country.
"Cry Me a River" also performed well in other countries, peaking at #6 in the Netherlands and France (Timberlake's first French Top 10 single and his highest charting hit until "What Goes Around... Comes Around" reached #5 in 2007). "Cry Me a River" reached the #10 position in both Sweden and Norway, and was a Top 20 success in New Zealand (#11), Finland (#19) and Switzerland (#20).
Timberlake's single was certified Silver in France for sales of 100,000 copies.[6]
Cover versions
- "Cry Me a River" was covered by Lostprophets as a B-side to their 2004 single "Last Train Home", by Hope Kills on their album "One For The Saints, Two For The Sinners", and by The Cliks on their album "Snakehouse".
- British cover band Ten Masked Men recorded a death metal version of the song. 50 Cent also collaborated with Timberlake on two remixes. One remix uses "The World" from 50 Cent's underground album God's Plan.
- Shayne Ward covered the song on The X Factor 2005, which he went on to win, he received good comments from all judges for this song.
- In 2006, New Found Glory covered the song for an online performance on Yahoo Music & Pepsi Smash's "Cover Art" feature. The video can be found on YouTube.
- During a performance with The Rolling Stones at Molson Canadian Rocks for Toronto in 2003, during the band's hit "Miss You", Mick Jagger sang the song's chorus several times with Timberlake, much to the crowd's delight (this performance can be found here).
- The music video was also parodied in 2006 in Bob Sinclar's music video for "Rock This Party".
- Glen Hansard and Colm Mac Con Iomaire of the Irish band The Frames recorded a cover version, for the Today FM album Even Better than the Real Thing.
- In 2008 the song was covered by Australian artist Gabriella Cilmi at the V Festival[7] as well as various other shows. Due to the popularity of her performances, she released the song as an acoustic version on the deluxe edition of her debut album, Lessons to Be Learned.
- Laura White covered the song on The X Factor 2008, at the judges houses stage, because of the performance White advanced to the live shows. White eventually placed 8th in the competetion.
- Lloyd Daniels covered the song on The X Factor 2009, he received bad comments from all judges for this song.
- Irish singer Lucia Evans covered the song for her debut album Natural Woman.
- 15-year-old Justin Bieber has performed Cry Me a River live in 2009, one of several recordings can be seen here
- Ten Masked Men have a cover version of this song done in the style of death metal on their album The PhanTen Masked Menace.
Charts
| Chart (2002) | Peak |
|---|---|
| U.S. Billboard Hot 100 [8] | 3 |
| U.S. Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs | 11 |
| Australian ARIA Singles Chart [9] | 2 |
| New Zealand RIANZ Singles Chart [10] | 11 |
| UK Singles Chart [11] | 2 |
| Irish Singles Chart | 6 |
| Italian Singles Chart | 14 |
| Canadian Singles Chart | 22 |
| German Singles Chart | 13 |
| Austrian Singles Chart [12] | 29 |
| Netherlands Top 40 Singles [13] | 6 |
| Norwegian Singles Chart [14] | 10 |
| Swiss singles chart [15] | 20 |
| Swedish Singles Chart [16] | 10 |
| French Singles Chart [17] | 6 |
References
- ^ http://www.disqueenfrance.com/fr/monopage.xml?id=259165&year=2003
- ^ Justin Timberlake Credits below
- ^ Justin, Britney At War? - News Story | Music, Celebrity, Artist News | MTV News
- ^ Rolling Stone Interview with Britney Spears "Sometimes It's Hard To Be A Woman"
- ^ [1]
- ^ http://www.disqueenfrance.com/fr/monopage.xml?id=259165&year=2003
- ^ Cry Me a Rive Live at V Festival
- ^ Billboard.com - Artist Chart History - Justin Timberlake
- ^ australian-charts.com - Justin Timberlake - Cry Me A River
- ^ charts.org.nz - Justin Timberlake - Cry Me A River
- ^ Chart Stats - Justin Timberlake - Cry Me A River
- ^ Justin Timberlake - Cry Me A River - austriancharts.at
- ^ dutchcharts.nl - Justin Timberlake - Cry Me A River
- ^ norwegiancharts.com - Justin Timberlake - Cry Me A River
- ^ Justin Timberlake - Cry Me A River - hitparade.ch
- ^ swedishcharts.com - Justin Timberlake - Cry Me A River
- ^ lescharts.com - Justin Timberlake - Cry Me A River
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