Standards Polls of 2021 #1: Best "Cry Me a River"

Julie London

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCGNYJOrebA

Ella

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Gn9A-kdsRo

there's several barbra takes to choose from ("a happening in central park" is highly regarded) but I favor the television appearances

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O71Xb3ivjzI

Lesley Gore

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6grqqVQylA

Crystal Gayle

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-I_kJiZU-s

Sylvester

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_W8Eayem3gM

Candy Sylver

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iz63ufoJlw

Aaron Neville

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7oAKH3oxG8

Joe Cocker

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRDe0PIPqj0

The Singers Unlimited

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I83q8WnrGyQ

Archie Shepp Quartet

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1j8ufaOfNI

Aerosmith

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkKVmWEyOuM

Trivia:

“Cry Me a River” is track 1 on Julie London’s first album
“Cry Me a River” is track 1 on Barbra Streisand’s first album

I love this tune even though the "plebeian / through with me, and" rhyme is exactly what I do not dig. (I have friends who love it.) Barbra's is for me the one to beat, like most singers she walks it all the way downtown by the end but the tune is receptive to subtler approaches, see Lesley Gore's frankly incredible version or Aaron Neville's, which does get intense but in a sort of middle range. (Neville says he sang this for a small label that never paid him -- which means this is probably just some house engineers setting up the mics, but it's an impossibly great recording.) Crystal Gayle's perfect pitch & range make this a natural for her but things get interesting when Sylvester and Candy Sylver weigh in. Hyper-cheese vocal harmony is something I can kinda not get enough of until I do, Singers Unlimited sounds exactly like you'd expect but man those harmonies & extensions -- if you can stomach the severe caucasity it's really nice but "no, man" is also a valid response to this one. Joe Cocker does his thing and if you're in the mood it'll get you but you gotta ask, given the right drugs could our kids not also do that? The Archie Sheep version is more trad than I'd've expected but dude plays HARD. Finally Aerosmith, not yet sober, bring a pretty weird vibe to the proceedings -- Tyler is honestly in rare late-dope-fiend form but the band doesn't sound very inspired, which, given that Joe Perry's gone, is not surprising. (Jimmy's not so bad, though.)

There's a Sammy Davis Jr,. version among many others too but I just didn't.

missing from the wrap-up there are London and Ella, who, alongside Barbra, are probably the defining versions. Ella sounds incredible on this but when does Ella not sound incredible? As a kid I found her scatting cringe-y but kids cringe at anything, Ella's all-time. Meanwhile the original has an arsenic-in-your-gin groove that's unbeatable, and it's not a standard yet so it breathes nicely.

The guitar performance on Julie’s original tips it for me over Barbra’s version but I gotta check out these other versions

yeah that guitar is sweet as hell. Lesley Gore & Sylvester are both super key, Sylvester's is modeled on the Joe Cocker version but Sylvester is singular so it goes beyond.

Cool thread idea!

I have that Candy Sylver 45 (is this her only record?) but I’d only listened to the other side of it till now. Not a bad version, even though I don’t know what those words are she’s singing.

Now that I’ve heard them all, I will stick with Julie London’s original. She carries the most resentment in her voice.

Archie Shepp’s is my 2nd fave.

thanks upper miss, I suspect there won't be many of us on these but I'm alone in hotels for the next two weeks so why not. it's hard to really know where to begin with "standards" -- vast somewhat nebulous category whose very name dates it but at the same time we still know a standard when we hear it, or even hear its name -- I'm weighing "willow weep for me" vs. "my melancholy baby" for the next one

the crystal gayle one here is really worth it because it's got that pre-80s Nashville vibe where all the musicians are just total fucking badasses 100% in service to the track, the only star is the singer fellas make it fancy but stay out of the way -- listen to how they handle the tempo change in the instrumental bridge, the second one -- just effortless, I bet I know like two bands who'd need less than three rehearsal days to get anywhere near that. but I think Lesley Gore is honestly the biggest surprise to me, it's got that Tommy James seamlessness & power

OTOH Barbra is just so so good

the other thing about these tunes is that in a lot of cases there's gonna be MAJOR players in the running every time -- Billie Holiday, Ella, Sinatra, Babs, etc -- which means that any "here's my from-a-different-angle" contenders are going be going up against something bigger than "a good version of a good tune"

which makes the sylvester version here really resonate, he really takes it to the stars

NB, I am no expert.

I get the Barbra performance as a tour de force performance but I find it completely obnoxious. Ella's version is over the top as well, but feels effortless in comparison.

Of these, I think the Lesley Gore or the Julie London versions are the winners.

Honorable mention to the Candy Sylver version - it's cool and makes me imagine a John Carpenter version on the Escape from New York soundtrack.

Needs an other option, Mari Wilson and Michael Buble both had UK top 30 hits with it. Voting for Julie of course.

I was just investigating the question "Who was Candy Sylver?" and it turns out she's Évelyne Courtois, who in the '60s was the popular French yé-yé singer known as Pussy Cat.

I like how Archie Shepp's horn sounds like a bitter drunk really unleashing on someone

yeah it really SOMETHING. just constantly erupting

but I keep coming back to Aaron Neville. an incredible performance

I love Ella as much as just about any vocalist ever, but when her version begins with the melisma I'm thinking "that's not really what this song needs," and when the arrangement gets swingy about three minutes in that feeling is confirmed for me. Sorry, Ella.

When I first encountered Julie London I regarded her as kitsch, based partly on her sex kitten album covers and partly on her versions of songs like "Yummy Yummy Yummy," that put her performances on a level with Marilyn Monroe's "Happy Birthday, Mr. President." I've come to the opinion that she really is a remarkable singer, subdued but not (usually) deadpan, never showboating and always in tune with her backing arrangements. As noted above, the guitar by Barney Kessel on her version is sublime.

Looking forward to checking out the rest of these.

Julie London.

I have long loved this version too

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnFO6CzlRBc

it's fun hearing all these

Julie London's cool tone and phrasing match the fuck-you vibe of the lyrics so well I have to stick with her, though Lesley Gore comes close

some interpretations have the singers crying more than mocking, which doesn't work for me

if Julie London is over her used-to-be, Ray Charles is still pissed off:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9h5psTSgSXk

First version I heard was a Ray Charles knock-off, I guess. May still vote for it though.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Voted Julie London. Would be interested in a “Willow Weep For Me” poll - Dexter Gordon does it on his album Our Man In Paris, with Bud Powell on piano and Kenny Clarke on drums, and it’s one of the tracks that got me into him.

Voted Julie London. Would be interested in a “Willow Weep For Me” poll - Dexter Gordon does it on his album Our Man In Paris, with Bud Powell on piano and Kenny Clarke on drums, and it’s one of the tracks that got me into him.

Apologies for double posting.

There's also this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snlccdZpXmw

I would have voted for Archie Shepp if it stayed instrumental. As it is, I voted for Julie London like it seems most of us have. Was nice to hear all these versions - Neville was a pleasant surprise.

Voted Julie London. Would be interested in a “Willow Weep For Me” poll - Dexter Gordon does it on his album Our Man In Paris, with Bud Powell on piano and Kenny Clarke on drums, and it’s one of the tracks that got me into him.

Seems to me I remember something like that was actually done before? No, not quite, another track on that same album.
Standards Scrutiny: A Night In Tunisia

I can't see where to click for Justin Timberlake so I guess I'll choose Julie London

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Wow, that's decisive.

I started this thread for versions of "These Foolish Things" once but didn't poll them. People were mostly interested in talking about Bryan Ferry: ITT: Versions of "These Foolish Things"

Wonder who else besides Josefa and myself will remember Julie London and her (second) husband Bobby Troup, composer of “Route 66,” in the cast of the television show Emergency!.

Well you’ve excluded me but I would like to say, yes I remember, and in fact Emergency! was one of my first favorite TV shows. That and Adam-12. I used to get so excited watching the opening moments of Emergency!, hoping it was gonna be some kind of major disaster the Emergency paramedics would have to deal with, preferably involving a fire.

Right, that and Adam-12 came as a pair, did they take place in the same universe? They both had titles with interesting punctuation.

Both produced by Julie London’s first husband, Jack Webb.

But I would also like to add a stray thought I had which may or may not be relevant. “Cry Me a River” appeared in 1955, which is pretty late in the game for an American standard (the Great American Songbook more or less ends in the 1940s). I can only think of “Misty,” which appeared in vocal form in 1959, as a later standard of similar ilk. When anyone *but* Julie London is singing it they are singing it with the awareness that they are singing a classic or a standard. Therefore they sing it with some degree of self-consciousness. Julie London sang it without that awareness, as just another song, which is perhaps why her version feels more real and less removed or affected.

Good point.

And yeah, Adam-12, Emergency!, and Dragnet: all Jack Webb productions and all about giving good PR to the LAPD and LAFD

I kind of figured but had to double check that Barney Kessel played on the Julie London version of the song. Had long forgotten she sang it in The Girl Can’t Help It.

Here, following the title song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WURyUKNt9Ac

Or just go here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0N1NDNy61L4

Also forgot about Tom Ewell in one of his Too Pooped to Pop roles. Wonder how many of those he did.

Was just listening to this one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ToiHWeGIa88

Tom Ewell did have a habit of winding up home alone with 1950s bombshells, not sure what his deal was

And then home alone with Robert Blake’s parrot on Baretta! How much do you remember about the original in incarnation of that show?

Was reminded of the existence of that Richard Thompson album by its being posted on the other thread but never actually listened to it. No time like the present.

Guess Barney Kessel was mentioned already upthread and on yet another thread recently. See also his work with Billie Holiday. The band is particularly good on the Body and Soul album.

Ha, recent versions of that album have some false starts of “Comes Love,” one of which prompts the words “Jesus, Barney!”

Wonder if we keep doing this we will get to the standard first song by Jane Birkin’s mother, but maybe it’s not popular enough.

Re; Baretta I remember the parrot and Robert Blake’s t-shirt. I’m sure I watched the show but it’s buried deep in my subconscious… I don’t think it’s been widely rerun, at least not lately

I also brought that other song up here:
Lets post about JAZZ STANDARDS

One fun thing about reviewing these tunes in this context is to have an excuse to listen to great singers- along with some other singers I guess - and see what they do with them. I know there are two schools of thought for instrumentalists: some say it is important to listen to singers and learn the lyrics or at least a subset of them in order to get the proper phrasing whilst others say “you mean that song has words?!”

Yes. I know a certain music teacher who is brilliant as an instrumentalist but whenever I try to talk about the meaning behind the lyric of a song, or the emotional intention of the vocalist, he falls silent or says “I never listen to lyrics”

Found a thread about that topic on another borad, don’t know if I should link it.

Sorry, meant to say “That tune has words!?”

Anyway, would be happy to participate in further iterations and may start some myself if inspired.

Also just relocated this thread which mentions the song in question.

Songs That Share A Certain Property With The James Bond Theme

I just was reminded that there is something known as the “Cry Me a River” lick but I never remember what it is.

It's the first six descending notes of the vocal melody ("Now you say you're lone-ly")

Oh yeah

Someone around here has been learning "Moonlight in Vermont" and it is sounding pretty good.

On the piano. She also wants a bigger midi controller than the one she has, maybe that's for another thread.

Sam Cooke was never mentioned on this thread.

Don’t think I’ve ever heard his version.