Cry Me a River is a torch song written by Arthur Hamilton and first published in 1953. It is a bluesy jazz ballad told from the view of a jilted lover, famous for the line cry me a river and for its sharp retort to heartbreak. Hamilton originally wrote it with Ella Fitzgerald in mind for the 1955 film Pete Kelly’s Blues, but the song found its signature voice with Julie London. London released the first recording in 1955 on Liberty Records, on her debut album Julie Is Her Name, backed by Barney Kessel and Ray Leatherwood; it became a U.S. top ten hit, reached No 9 in the US and No 22 in the UK, earned a gold record, and helped establish London as a leading torch singer. The song has since become a standard, with Ella Fitzgerald releasing a version in 1961, Joe Cocker performing a live take on Mad Dogs & Englishmen in 1970 that peaked at No 11 on the Billboard Hot 100, and many other artists covering it. The Julie London recording was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2001 and into the Library of Congress National Recording Registry in 2016. The tune remains influential in jazz improvisation and, according to SecondHandSongs, has hundreds of recorded versions.
