Cry to Me
| "Cry to Me" | |
|---|---|
|
Single by Solomon Burke Betty Harris |
|
| Released | 1962 (Solomon Burke) 1963 (Betty Harris) |
| Recorded | 1961 (Solomon Burke) 1963 (Betty Harris) |
| Length | 2:33 |
| Label |
Atlantic (Solomon Burke) Jubilee (Betty Harris) |
| Writer(s) | Bert Russell |
| "Cry to Me" | |
|---|---|
| Song by The Rolling Stones from the album Out of Our Heads | |
| Released | 30 July 1965 |
| Recorded | 13 May 1965, RCA Studios, Hollywood |
| Genre | motown |
| Length | 3:09 |
| Label | London PS429 (stereo), LL3429 (mono) |
| Writer(s) | Bert Russell |
| Producer(s) | Andrew Loog Oldham |
"Cry to Me" is a song written by Bert Russell a/k/a Bert Berns, first recorded under the production of Bert Berns by Solomon Burke, who released the song in 1962. Other versions of the song were later recorded by the Rolling Stones, Precious Wilson, The Pretty Things and Betty Harris among others.
On December 6, 1961 Burke recorded one of his best known songs, "Cry to Me", "an ode to loneliness and desire" "one of the first songs to unify country, gospel and R&B in one package", that is considered "the paradigm for Southern soul ballads." "Cry to Me" was written (as Bert Russell), conducted and arranged by Klaus Ogermann and produced by Bert Berns, "a roly-poly white New Yorker with a deep love and empathy for black music despite a formal music education at the Juilliard School Of Music and a music background far removed from the searing soul in which, by 1963, he specialised", with whom Burke had a difficult relationship. Burke "distrusted the young producer", and often spoke of him disparagingly, but later acknowledged Berns as "a genius" and "a great writer, a great man." Cissy Houston, who provided backing vocals on several of Burke's songs that were produced by Berns, believed "Burke changed his mind about Bert as soon as Sol started working with him in the studio. Bert's emotion-charged songs and Sol's gospel delivery was a marriage made in heaven." Although Burke recognized Berns's skill for crafting hit records, he rejected two Berns compositions, "Hang on Sloopy" (later recorded by (The McCoys), and "A Little Bit of Soap", a recent hit for The Jarmels. Burke explained in 2004: "I felt a little unsafe about it, because they were pushing me in an ethnic market, so why would I want to say that (about soap) to my people? It didn't have the meaning it needed to have." In frustration after Burke had rejected his song choices, Berns offered him a final song, "Cry to Me", which Berns sang to him very slowly. According to Burke in a 2008 interview: "I said 'That's terrible. It's just too slow for me, I don't like slow songs.' And Mr Wexler says, 'Listen this guy writes for you, you're pissing him off. You're pissing me off, too.' (Laughs) I tried to sing it a couple of times that way, couldn't even feel it. Then I asked the young man in the studio, the engineer Tommy Dowd, 'Could we have them speed this up?'". The Personnel on the Solomon Burke recording included Leon Cohen on Alto Sax, Jesse Powell on Tenor sax, Hank Jones on Piano, Robert Mosely on Organ, Don Arnone, Al Caiola, Bucky Pizzarelli and Everett Barksdale on Guitars: Art Davis on Bass, and Gary Chester on Drums
...
Wikipedia