"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, won Timberlake a Grammy Award for "Best Male Pop Vocal Performance" in 2004.

Background information

The song is supposedly a re-telling of his split with Britney Spears^[1], 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 Britney, 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). Both have released diss songs aimed at each other. 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." ^[1]

Yet according to Spears' account in an October 2003 Rolling Stone interview^[3], 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." In hindsight she loathes Timberlake for what he did, but 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.^[4]

Track Listings

US Maxi-CD

1. Cry Me A River [Album Version]
2. Cry Me A River [Instrumental]
3. Cry Me A River [Dirty Vegas Vocal Mix]
4. Cry Me A River [Junior's Vasquez Earth Club Mix]
5. Like I Love you [Basement Jaxx Vocal Mix] L;;
6. Like I Love you [Deep Dish Zigzag Remix]

Pt. 1 [SINGLE]

1. Cry Me A River [Original Version]
2. Cry Me A River [Dirty Vegas Vocal Remix]
3. Cry Me A River [Bill Hamel Vocal Remix]
4. Cry Me A River [Enhanced Video]

Europe Single

1. Cry Me a River [Album Version]
2. Cry Me a River [Dirty Vegas Vocal Mix]
3. Cry Me a River [Bill Hamel Vocal Remix]
4. Like I Love You [Basement Jaxx Vocal Mix]

Remixes/official versions

• Album Version - 4:47
• Mash-Up Remix featuring 50 Cent - 5:13
• Official Remix featuring 50 Cent - 4:52
• MTV Mash Justin Vs. Eminem "Cry me a superman" - 5:07

Chart performance

"Cry Me a River" peaked at #3 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, and was - at that point - Timberlake's most successful single, until "Sexyback" reached the number-one position in 2006. The track also peaked at #3 on the United World chart. 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.

"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).

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^[5] as well as various other shows.

Charts

References

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