ROY ORBISON W/KD LAND - CRYING

"Crying" is a rock and roll ballad written by Roy Orbison and Joe Melson and sung by Orbison.

The song was released as a 45rpm single by Monument Records in July 1961 and went to No. 2 on the Billboard pop music charts.

The song contains "a vivid combination of hurtful romantic longing combined with near operatic vocals" (Roy Orbison Biography, no date). It is remarkable in that Roy Orbison begins singing the climactic, final note slightly flat, sliding up by the end of the note to just under the correct pitch. That this was done for effect was confirmed in a live performance, Live at Austin City Limits, as well as on the 1987 re-recording from the album In Dreams, on which he sang that note perfectly on key.

The song also appears on Orbison's 1962 album with the title Crying and his 1989 posthumous album A Black & White Night Live from the 1988 HBO television special.

In 1987, Orbison rerecorded the song as a duet with k.d. lang as part of the soundtrack for the motion picture, Hiding Out. Their collaboration won the Grammy Award for Best Country Collaboration with Vocals. Rebekah Del Rio performed an a cappella Spanish language version of the song, entitled "Llorando" in the 2001 David Lynch film Mulholland Dr. The song had also previously been used on the soundtrack for the 1997 cult film Gummo, directed by Harmony Korine, in which two of the central characters even discuss the song at length.

In 2002, "Crying" was honored with a Grammy Hall of Fame Award. In 2004,Rolling Stone Magazine named it as one of the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time."

Carrie Underwood performed the song on the TV Talent show, American Idol (Season 4). She later went on to win the show, and is now a successful country music artist. The winner of Australian Idol Damien Leith also performed the song, in 2006.

In a 2006 poll for a Channel 5 program Britain's Favourite Break-up Songs, "Crying" was voted 13th.