Deep Dive into Faith Hill’s Bold and Timeless Cry
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Join me for a deep dive into Faith Hill's Cry album! In this video, we’ll explore the history, impact, and legacy of this Grammy-winning, genre-blending album, breaking down its songs, music videos, chart success, and critical reception. From Faith Hill’s SNL and Letterman performances to her CMA Awards appearances, industry criticism, and crossover success, we’ll analyze why Cry remains one of Faith Hill’s best and most underrated albums. Could we see a deluxe edition, vinyl release, or even a live tour? I’ll also share my reaction, fan theories, and personal memories of this pivotal era in Faith Hill’s career. Whether you're a longtime fan or new to her music, this is the ultimate Faith Hill Cry retrospective you won’t want to miss!
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Transcript
Let’s go back to 2001 – this is Faith Hill’s Breathe era. The final single “If My Heart Had Wings” was released and landed at number three at country radio.
She took the Academy of Country Music Award for Top Female Vocalist for the third year in a row. “There You’ll Be,” which was from the Pearl Harbor soundtrack, was released that summer. It hit number eleven on the country charts, and it was an even bigger pop and adult contemporary hit.
With Faith pregnant with her and Tim McGraw’s third child, the rest of the year in terms of public appearances was relatively low key. She ended up only playing one show that year and that was for the opening of a venue in Canada.
We saw her perform “There Will Come a Day” on a 9/11 telethon. We also saw her at the CMA's where she was nominated for Female Vocalist of the Year, which Lee Ann Womack won that year. However, Tim McGraw did take home Entertainer of the Year for the very first time. As 2002 kicked off, Faith kept winning the Favorite Female Country Artist at the American Music Awards, and Tim would accept that award for her. He was in LA while she was in Nashville with their newborn.
A few months later, Faith landed a huge spot on the Oscars. She performed “There You’ll Be.” Songwriter Diane Warren was nominated for Best Song, and it was just a beautiful performance. Remember that rainbow colored dress she wore on the red carpet? It was multicolored, with pastel colors. She looked beautiful.
Around this time on country radio, it was very heavy on patriotic songs. Post-9/11, if you have the word “America” in your song title or somewhere in your song, you were basically guaranteed a top ten hit. We were starting to see the decline of females being played on country radio.
Music City was quick to sign any type of knock-off act to capitalize on the crossover success that acts like Faith experienced. That same industry would be the first to tear down the album that Faith would release that fall.
In August of 2002, "Cry” was sent to radio. It's very emotional and goes into a big chorus, which we've heard with radio hits like “It Matters to Me” and “Breathe.” It's obviously very pop, but it didn't feel out of place on country radio. Strong power ballads were favored. In 20002, you had Martina McBride’s “Where Would You Be,” Kellie Coffey with “When You Lie Next to Me,” and Rebecca Lynn Howard's “Forgive,” which was a top fifteen hit that summer.
Faith originally wanted to cut the song “Forgive” by Rebecca Lynn Howard. That was one of songs that Faith was planning to record for that album, but ultimately Rebecca recorded it, and she scored her very first big hit with it.
When Faith was talking to 60 Minutes, she said when she was looking for songs for the Cry album, it took them two years. They're starting almost the time that Breathe is being released, so late 1999, early 2000. She said she went from 10,000 songs down to the final tracks that appeared on that album.
As we're moving into fall, the video for “Cry” premieres on CMT. We're seeing a big promotional push on radio and TV. Faith is on “Late Night with David Letterman” - that's where she performed “Cry.” Then, Faith joined a very short list of country performers at the time invited to play “Saturday Night Live.” It aired on October 12, with Sarah Michelle Geller hosting and Faith performed “Cry.” Fans got to hear “Free” for the very first time, too.
And in today's world, you might see several country artists on late night TV in any given single week.
This was simply not the case in 2002. Only the biggest names like Faith Hill got that coveted spot and she was an artist who helped bring country music to the mainstream. We'd also see Faith perform "Cry" at the Billboard Awards later that year.
On October 15, after all these major appearances, the album Cry is released with 472,486 copies sold.
it debuts at number one on the Billboard Country Album chart and the Billboard Top 200, the all-genre tally. This gives Faith her biggest opening week at that point of her career. Those are giant numbers.
The single "Cry” reaches number twelve on the country charts, but proves to be an even bigger pop hit, spending an incredible eleven weeks at number one on the AC chart.
With "Cry” already peaking at country radio, her team chooses “When the Lights Go Down” as the next single. She performs at the CMA Awards and receives a standing ovation. As country music slowed the number of females that they were playing on radio, it affected acts like Faith who typically shot to the top ten in no time. The song would reach number twenty-six on the charts. That was her lowest performing single since 1993’s “But I Will” from her debut album.
As the year ended, the album Cry was certified double platinum for two million in sales. It ranked as the ninth best-selling country album of the year.
Faith’s second primetime concert special aired in November. It was filmed in California, and it heavily showcased songs from the Cry album. There was a rendition of “Breathe” with special guest Carlos Santana, and it was a beautiful performance.
In January of the new year, Faith was once again crowned Favorite Female Performer by the People's Choice Awards.
Faith also returned to the Grammy stage where she performed "Cry.” The song was nominated for Best Female Country Vocal Performance. The other nominees were Martina McBride with “Blessed,” Dolly Parton’s “Dagger Through the Heart,” “Lately” by Lucinda Williams, and Lee Ann Womack’s “Something Worth Leaving Behind.” This would be Faith’s fourth nomination in the category, and it would become her second win.
Country radio continued to be dominated by male acts. When “You’re Still Here” was released in the spring of 2003, a new remix version of the song was heard on radio. They were hoping to appeal to that more traditional- favored crowd, so there was a steel guitar-infused version that was created. During the second annual CMT Flameworthy Awards, Faith premiered the song, and she also won the Hottest Video of the Year for "When the Lights Go Down.”
The single "You’re Still Here” gained enough traction to reach number twenty-eight on the country charts. Although country radio still wasn't exactly welcoming the album, she would score a top ten adult contemporary hit with “One” and “Baby You Belong” was a hit over in Japan. While her singles were done at country radio, the album sold strongly enough to become the fifth best-selling country album of 2003. She even scored a Grammy nomination for Best Country Album at the 2004 ceremony.
Nashville had a formula for making records in the nineties, and it was common for artists to release an album every single year. Most of these albums had ten tracks with at least three or four really strong singles. You almost always had a ballad, maybe a duet, or a gospel inspired number. And I think it's safe to say that Faith's first two albums partially followed that pattern when they were released in 1993 and 1995. But we saw her take an artistic leap in 1998 with the self-titled Faith, giving us a glimpse of a more soulful sound. Then, Breathe added the electric guitars with the polished and big sound to it. The Cry album was the album we got to experience a more unleashed artist.
I feel like we got to know her on this album. I think it brought the best up-tempo numbers we've heard from her. And the album seemed to be a creative process that appeared fulfilling. It could have been so easy to just do Breathe part two, but I think she challenged herself to create something new that suited her. She was a thirty-five-year-old international superstar, and this album captured a lot of her influences, but she was also opening up in a way that we've never seen before.
You had so many A-list songwriters like, Matraca Berg, Amy Mayo, Pink even co-wrote one of the songs. She vocally did something different, the instruments were unique, so much effort was put into this record.
Faith didn't tour for a number of years. When the 2000 Soul 2 Soul tour ended, it would have been 2007 when the second installment of that tour was launched. By that point, the follow-up to Cry, Fireflies had already been released. With the exception of a few, not very many, songs from Cry had been performed live.
She did "Cry” on the 2007 tour. Then in the fall of 2007, she released The Hits. “Cry” appeared on that compilation as did a live version of "Stronger.” Faith also performed “Stronger” on the “Late Show with David Letterman.” In 2017, both “Cry” and “Free” were highlights of Soul 2 Soul III.
The Cry album made a big enough impact to land at number 179 on the list of best-selling albums for the entire decade.
As a fan, there's a piece of me that wants justice for Cry. Here we had an artist truly becoming more at ease with revealing songs, just being more personal. And twenty years ago, it caught flack for not being middle-of-the-road country.
Yet Faith was very upfront that this album explored multiple musical sides. Look at country radio today. There are straight up rap and hip-hop attempts, and these artists insist that it's country. The pop versus country debate was a hot topic in the early 2000s, and Faith Hill's name was always inserted into those debates. Were people in the industry jealous of her international success?
Absolutely.
When you're at the top, people will tear you down. And as much as I would love to see more shows or have new music. I don't blame artists like Faith who worked endlessly, made a lot of other people money, dealt with criticism with every move they made, I respect their decisions to only work and release what inspires them. I'd much rather listen to artists who only have a handful of truly authentic records then hearing all these artists constantly releasing halfhearted Eps or CDs just for the sake of content.
In 2002, Faith did an interview with a Gainsville outlet, and she said, “I'm a very honest person. I don't want my record to sound like everybody else's. I don't want to do what everybody else is doing. That's not inspiring to me.”
In an interview with Westwood One that same year Faith said, “I think it's a very soulful album because of the songs I selected and the way the album is produced. But the most important thing is that I want people to know how much I love music.”
With her superstar status, Faith Hill was being sent the best song from the top songwriters.
In that same interview with Westwood One, she said, “With this album, I really sent a message to them. If you think something is too far for me, send it. If you think it's not far enough for me, send it. I wanna hear everything you possibly have, and they did. There's just some songs on this record that I feel so blessed to have. I feel like this is the first album I've ever really been able to capture what I do live.”
One very interesting thing Faith said on an Instagram post was: “This is the album that made me feel confident when performing live.”
I mean, we're talking about somebody who's been performing for over a decade. She's been nominated for entertainer of the year, she's been on these huge tours. For her to say that she was only starting to become confident at that point in her career, that's very revealing.
Although nothing has been announced since – Faith did put a post on Instagram in October of 2002 saying:
“It is impossible to wrap my head around the fact that twenty years ago to this day, my album Cry was released. The album that I was lucky enough to make, the album that gave me confidence to perform live. From this album “Cry,” Stronger,” “When The Lights Go Down,” “Free,” - every single song to every single person that played a part in creating this album blew my mind. Thank you to my fans who have made this album continue its journey. And to that, I say, for you, I have a dream and that dream is coming true in 2023. XO faith.”
Again, two years later, no announcement was ever made, and Faith actually doesn’t even have Instagram anymore. There were a lot of fan theories like could Faith being doing a one-off show or even a tour focusing on the Cry album? Maybe a vinyl record? A deluxe edition? Who knows – maybe someday we’ll find out!
But in the meantime, let me know what your favorite songs from this album where! Thank you so much for being here! You can find me each week on the syndicated radio show Across The Country with Amanda – and don’t forget to subscribe to this episode so you don’t miss the next episode!