- Don't Cry Out Loud (song)
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"Don't Cry Out Loud" Single by Melissa Manchester from the album Don't Cry Out Loud B-side "We Had This Time" Released October 1978 Format 7" single Recorded September 1978 Genre traditional pop Length 3:36 Label Arista Records Writer(s) Peter Allen, Carole Bayer Sager Producer Harry Maslin Melissa Manchester singles chronology "I Wanna Be Where You Are"
(1977)"Don't Cry Out Loud"
(1978)"Theme from Ice Castles"
(1979)"Don't Cry Out Loud" is the title of a song written in 1976 by Peter Allen with lyricist Carole Bayer Sager which is best known as a hit single for Melissa Manchester in the US and for Elkie Brooks in the UK.
Contents
Early versions
The first evident recording of the song is by the Moments on the December 1976 album release Moments With You produced by Sylvia Robinson; this track - entitled "We Don't Cry Out Loud" - had a single release to chart at #79 R&B in 1977. Peter Allen himself included a version of the song on his 1977 live album It is Time For Peter Allen with the track having a December 1977 single release. Allen's studio recording of his song was introduced on his 1979 album release I Could Have Been a Sailor. Allen also would include "Don't Cry Out Loud" on the 1985 live album, Captured Live at Carnegie Hall.
Melissa Manchester version
Melissa Manchester recorded "Don't Cry Out Loud" at the strong suggestion of Arista Records president Clive Davis who felt that Manchester's intended 1979 album release lacked a potential Top 40 comeback hit. Davis assigned production of the track to Harry Maslin, who had co-produced the David Bowie albums Young Americans and Station to Station but whose most recent production work had been with Arista bubblegum act Bay City Rollers. Although Manchester herself regularly collaborated with lyricist Carole Bayer Sager - their output including Manchester's sole (to that point) Top Ten hit "Midnight Blue" - Harry Maslin would recall that Manchester "hated the song ["Don't Cry Out Loud"] and was angry with me for doing it [i.e. producing Manchester's recording]"; "I think that's why I got such a wonderful vocal out of her". Recorded at Allen Zentz Studios Hollywood, "Don't Cry Out Loud" was released 11 October 1978 and did indeed reach the Top 40 at the end of 1978 rising to a #10 peak on the Billboard Hot 100 twenty weeks later in March 1979.[1]
In 2004 Manchester would say of "Don't Cry Out Loud": "I finally understand what it meant...I [originally] thought it was a brilliant song but it seemed like the antithesis of everything Carole [Bayer Sager] and I were writing which was always about self-affirmation and crying out and sharpening your communication skills. But it's a beautifully crafted song that was all about how in the end you just have to learn to cope - and that's no easy thing."[2]
Elkie Brooks version
The release of Manchester's version of "Don't Cry Out Loud" as a single in the US resulted in an expedient cover by Elkie Brooks for the UK market with Gus Dudgeon producing. Entering the UK Top 50 dated 11 November 1978 - the same date as the Billboard Hot 100 debut of Manchester's version - Brooks' "Don't Cry Out Loud" had reached #12 on the UK Top 50 dated 16 December 1978 - two weeks before Manchester's version reached the US Top 40 - ; however Brooks' version did not match the sustained impact enjoyed by Manchester's US single, with Brooks' version descending from #12 and out of the UK Top 50 by the end of January 1979.[3] Brooks' "Don't Cry Out Loud" was not featured on its singer's 1979 album release Live and Learn instead making a belated debut as an album track on Brook's alltime bestseller Pearls released in 1981. The song would later serve as title track for Brooks' 2005 live album release cut in 2004. In 2009 Brooks stated: "Many years ago I was persuaded to do a lot of songs I wasn't particularly keen on. 'Don't Cry Out Loud' was one of them - but over the years I have [grown] to like it!"[4]
Other versions
Rita Coolidge's performance of "Don't Cry Out Loud" took the took the Grand Prize at the Tokyo Music Festival held 17 June 1979 with Coolidge's album featuring the track and named for it becoming a Top 20 Japanese bestseller that summer.[5]
"Don't Cry Out Loud" was recorded by Diana DeGarmo for inclusion on her 2004 single release helmed by the track "Dreams (Diana DeGarmo song)";Clive Davis selected "Don't Cry Out Loud" for DeGarmo to sing and Melissa Manchester attended the recording session at DeGarmo's recording session giving the last-named singer pointers on how to sing the song.[6]
The song has also been recorded by John Barrowman, Shirley Bassey, Joe Longthorne ("We Don't Cry Out Loud"), Sandra Reemer and Shirley Zwerus.
In the Peter Allen stage bio-jukebox musical The Boy from Oz, "Don't Cry Out Loud" is performed by the character of Allen's mother Marion Woolnough; Beth Fowler is featured on the track on the 2003 original Broadway cast recording.
Miss America 1980 Cheryl Prewitt - Miss Mississippi 1979 - sang "Don't Cry Out Loud" to her own piano accompaniment in the talent competition of the Miss America Pageant broadcast on NBC 9 September 1979 from Convention Hall in Atlantic City.[7]
Liza Minnelli sang "Don't Cry Out Loud" as part of her 7-night "Liza's Back" engagement, June 2002. Minnelli, who was once married to Peter Allen, sang only the first verse and altered the chorus, imploring the listener to "Cry out loud, don't keep it inside. Don't learn how to hide your feelings." The song was part of a short cycle revolving around the idea of crying.
References
- ^ Billboard vol93 #26 (4 July 1981) p.6
- ^ Billboard vol 116 #48 (27 November 2004) p.6
- ^ "Elkie Brooks - Don't Cry Out Loud". Chart Stats. 1979-01-20. http://www.chartstats.com/songinfo.php?id=8005. Retrieved 2011-01-07.
- ^ "Elkie to make a splash at Pools". Wimbledonguardian.co.uk. 2010-07-12. http://www.wimbledonguardian.co.uk/leisure/8259748.Elkie_to_make_a_splash_at_Pools/. Retrieved 2011-01-07.
- ^ Billboard vol 91 #26 (30 June 1979) p.1
- ^ "Diana Degarmo's Debut Single to Be Released June 29, 2004". California: Prnewswire.com. http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/diana-degarmos-debut-single-to-be-released-june-29-2004-75134572.html. Retrieved 2011-01-07.
- ^ The Spokesman Review 10 September 1979 p.41
Categories:- 1978 singles
- Melissa Manchester songs
- Songs written by Carole Bayer Sager
- Songs written by Peter Allen
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