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TRAINWRECKORDS: "Cry" by Faith Hill

All country music, all the time.

Anyway, please check my errors and also PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE vote in the Song vs. Song Poll, we are doing some '80s indie rock legends, The Pixies' "Where Is My Mind" vs. "Teen Age Riot" by Sonic Youth. https://www.patreon.com/posts/new-poll-teen-vs-100383946

TRAINWRECKORDS: "Cry" by Faith Hill TRAINWRECKORDS: "Cry" by Faith Hill

Comments

I dunno can a debut album really count as one?

RedBedroomRecords

My only complaint is that the opportunity to splice in Getting Kinda Funky was not taken

Adequately Sized Dog

Chance the Rapper for next TRAINWRECKORDS!

Tinni

“There You’ll Be” cracked the top ten of Billboard’s Hot 100 and was a very sizable hit outside of America (Top three in the UK and Number One in Canada, Poland, Portugal, and Sweden). Time may have erased it, but it did a lot better than “not great”.

Kristopher Bluth

Can't wait for the Chris Gaines episode

Epic Bingewatcher

Looks like the video is down.

Harpo1987

I almost choked to death on a chicken strip when Faith whispered that "like you're touching the wings of a butterfly" line.

Daniel Beckett

But his fans always saw it as a dumb side project and nothing else, nobody expected him to do anymore Gaines albums. I don't think the Gaines thing really made country audiences turn on him, hell most of them probably ignored it. Garth voluntarily stepped out of the spotlight to help raise his kids.

RedBedroomRecords

I'm surprised Todd didn't mention that "Cry" is actually a cover song, and it's not like Faith bastardized the original, it's just not a very good song to begin with which makes it a baffling choice for a single, doing a cover song for a single is always a bit of a gamble as it can lead you to being a one-hit wonder like Alien Ant Farm or give people the impression that your album is so weak you have to depend on other people's songs to sell it.

RedBedroomRecords

That's why I like the Larry Cordle version better.

Nick Sestanovich

Minor issue: the audio and video of Faith isn't quite synced in the clip at 21:55

Esther Mackenzie

Also one at 10:01

Michael Dominic

Oh yes. I'm definitely looking forward to a future episode on Fleetwood Mac indeed.

DarkenedMortal

Great video, and interesting to see a historic example of how country will reject somebody for not being “country enough,” despite their success and despite Nashville’s frequent love of straight pop music (I love Ronnie Milsap, with the 4th most country #1s in history, but half of his 70s output is basically just Barry Manilow). Glad we got to see the irony of Murder on Music Row being a big deal as well. I can’t imagine anybody less qualified to complain about Nashville not playing “real country” in the 90s than George Strait and Alan Jackson, who combined to release 69 singles in the 90s, of which 33 reached #1 and 60 reached the top 5.

Jeffrey Giancana

this video is quite good and it is quite sad having the undercurrent of the state of current country radio underpinning this: I know they never really crossed over to America, but I'm curious if you would ever cover Six by Mansun for this series, britpop band gets a really big first album at the tailend of the movement and follows it up with an insane 70 minute prog-rock thing that nobody at the time knew what to do with but is at the very least really interesting though you can see exactly why it failed

Nic Pruitt

Now I want to hear her version of "Edge of a Revolution".

Kristopher Bluth

It was absolutely the end of Brooks' imperial era. He had ten albums before that went at least diamond (ten million sold) and while he'll likely be able to play stadiums forever, none of his new music since Gaines has had anywhere near the impact. Furthermore, he still seems proud of the whole thing and has even hinted that Chris Gaines may return.

Kristopher Bluth

The sound leveling also seems a bit off? Your commentary is way quieter than the other clips you’re using

Fiona Stirling

The song that "Cry" reminds me of most is, of all things, "Cryin'" by Aerosmith. They're both breakup songs about crying, roughly the same tempo, same 3/4 time signature, similar chord progressions...even very similar syllabic structures in the chorus' main hooks. If you layered them on top of each other, Faith and Steven Tyler would even be singing the word "Cry" at the same time! Biggest difference is, "Cry" has no hard rock edge whatsoever. I know you kept comparing it to Celine Dion, but listening to the clips of "Cry" and especially "Free," my takeaway is, maybe what Faith Hill really wanted to make was a straight-up rock album, but she didn't want to alienate her fanbase so she split the difference and made an album for nobody.

Cranston Zoot

I thought she looked good personally.

RedBedroomRecords

I might've heard this once or twice on the radio back in the day but I can't remember.

RedBedroomRecords

Chris Gaines didn't really slow down Brooks career though and that thing was more of a dumb side project then anything else, I seriously doubt Brooks planned to keep the Gaines persona going for much longer.

RedBedroomRecords

same thing happened with Avril Lavigne, thankfully she did make a great comeback with Love Sux(I really don't get all the people hating on the lyrics for being "immature" it's ridiculous how male artists in their 30s sing about way more immature shit and they don't get a tenth as much backlash as Avril does).

RedBedroomRecords

Here's some i'd like to see: Genesis-Calling All Stations, Genesis goes Alternative kinda, this is a case where the band potentially could've survived without their original singer but unfortunately the guy they were originally going to go with(forgot his name) tragically died and Ray Wilson had to fill the void and while he was a talented singer he wasn't right for Genesis and the album was mostly way too depressing for a Genesis release. New Kids on the Block-Face the Music, America's hottest boy band tries to go New Jack Swing and more mature with disastrous results, one of the members left before the tour even began and the tour itself was cancelled due to low ticket sales and saw the band being reduced to playing small clubs. Def Leppard-X, after an amazing comeback in Euphoria with Mutt Lange and returning to their roots from the dissapointing Alternative/Grunge-esque Slang what does Lep do next? Attempt to go pop rock and use a bunch of outside songwriters that mainly worked for mainstream pop groups like N'Sync and Lonestar and the result was an album that did even worse then Slang in terms of sales and was their last album to chart in the U.K. and almost none of the songs off that album have been performed since the original supporting tour. Megadeth-Risk, this was one "risk" that did not pay off as after the band saw some crossover success with the more commercial Cryptic Writings they went even more commercial with this weird alternative rock sound that killed their mainstream momentum and forced them to go back to their metal roots to survive. Scorpions-Eye II Eye, the biggest intercontinental band of all time almost managed to make it through the 90s without selling out but at the end they got worried whispers from management and got convinced they had to go adult-contemporary/pop and with producer Peter Wolfe you ended up with a weird mish-mash of different styles(everything from Grunge/Alternative to Dance Pop) and awkward attempts to be trendy("To Be No 1" is all about the Monica Lewinsky scandal which the music video also heavily leans into, by 1999 most people in America were already sick of hearing about the scandal so they damn sure didn't want to hear a German rock band singing about it)Matthias Jabs talked about how much he regretted making this album and how much of a sellout it was, it failed to make any significant chart presence anywhere and was basically the last time you ever saw the band ever have any kind of presence on the music charts.

RedBedroomRecords

About Pearl Harbor, Bay actually wanted to focus more on the war itself and didn't want to do a love triangle, that was all screenwriter Randall Wallace's idea and the studio was desperate for the film to be the next Titanic so they ultimately sided with Wallace and Bay was forced to put the love story in against his own will so i'm not going to blame him too much for that. While Pearl Harbor is definitely Bay's worst film I think it still has some good points and I think it's a way better film then that massively overrated piece of shit that is Titanic. Say what you will about Pearl Harbor, at least it didn't horribly misrepresent a real life person like Titanic did, in Cameron's case he turned someone who was a hero in real life into a drunk and violent coward and he had to apologize to the guy's family(can't say I blame them one bit for being pissed at him), needless to say if he tried to pull that crap in the age of social media there's no way in hell he would've gotten off so lightly for it(just look at the backlash Green Book got), he would've absolutely been roasted to hell and back (and deservedly so IMO)

RedBedroomRecords

This is good timing, I just thinking about Faith Hill and how underrated "Where are You Christmas?" from the Grinch soundtrack is(seriously that song deserves at least a third as much airplay as Mariah Carey gets during Xmas season). Anyways i'm not a big country guy myself so there's not too many Trainwreckord albums in this genre on my radar(aside from Zac Brown Band's "The Owl" and his solo album "The Controversy")so this was an interesting episode overall. I will say I actually do like "Cry" more then most of Faith Hill's actual country stuff and I think "Free" is actually a pretty cool song.

RedBedroomRecords

Quick error fix – some of the audio is too loud, particularly the clip at the very end and the opening lines of "Cry" (10:52).

J. Tay

"Shadows and Light" could make for a great episode of Trainwreckords. To summarize why it would make a good episode: The members of Wilson Phillips come from a strong musical background: Wilson Phillips consists of Carnie and Wendy Wilson, the daughters of Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys, and Chynna Phillips, the daughter of John and Michelle Phillips of the Mamas & the Papas. The trio formed in 1989. In 1990 they released their self-titled debut album. It sold over 5 million copies in the US alone and over 8 million worldwide (some sources now say it sold over 10 million worldwide). Three number one singles, a number 4 single, and a number 12 single. Thought not every critic's favorite group, they got numerous awards and nominations. Then they release their 2nd album on June 2, 1992, "Shadows and Light." The album does end up selling over 1 million, though it is a far cry from the 8 to 10 million seller of their debut. There were internal conflicts within the group, conflicts with their record label, a change in management, and a change in image. Also, before the album was recorded, they all attended therapy to deal with trauma they experienced in childhood. None of the 3 singles performed as well as the five singles from their debut. The third and final single from the album, "Flesh and Blood", failed to crack the top 100 and peaked at 119. Their summer 1992 tour was cancelled, apparently due to weak ticket sales. The head of the record company at the time said it was ultimately the girls' decision. The decision to cancel was made right around the time the record was released. Rumors of a breakup start flying. Though the group tried to put to rest the rumors, they ended up being true... or coming true. By the end of 1992, Chyna Phillips decided to pursue a solo career and Wilson Phillips broke up for 12 years. They never again even came close to the success they had in 1990-1991. How does a music group reach the top and then fall so hard so fast? Maybe Todd should investigate! An article from 1992: https://ew.com/article/1992/11/27/decline-wilson-phillips/ An article from February 2020: https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/wilson-phillips-hold-on-bridesmaids-interview-957375/ An article from December of 2022: https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/30-years-later-wilson-phillips-recall-dark-confessional-sophomore-album-that-was-considered-a-failure-maybe-it-was-kind-of-just-too-much-for-people-213937696.html

David Gutierrez

Came here to point this out. Seemed like a split second bonus but it's just an awkward transition.

J. Tay

This video is excellent but HOLY SHIT could I not focus on the music because the early 2000s fashions were absolutely destroying me. Whoever was styling this woman deserved to be fired.

Shiny Skunk

Just real quick: From what Wikipedia is saying, Life's a Dance by John Michael Montgomery came out in late '92. It's entirely possible that when it comes out is irrelevant to when it went platinum (I'm nowhere near an expert on this stuff), but it seems weird that that's the album that would go 4x platinum the same year as Weezer's Blue Album instead of Kickin' It Up, which came out in '94.

David Yurch

This is the rare Trainwreckord that was so disastrous that it caused the artist in question to basically stop recording almost entirely (not counting bands because bands break up and never record again all the time). Because while most albums covered on this show effectively killed the respective artists' careers, many of them still release albums to this day — albeit to little fanfare obviously. But whatever happened to Faith during the Cry era completely crippled her creative drive. Other artists this has happened to are: Paula Abdul, Jessica Simpson, Ashlee Simpson, Lauryn Hill (as already covered on this show), Natasha Bedingfield (she had a colossal flop album in 2010), Christina Millian, and Fergie. I guess you can count Britney Spears as well after the disaster that was "Britney Jean". She did one more album called Glory in 2016 that was pretty well-received but flopped as well. Then she got fed up with the conservatorship, went rogue, and now she's effectively retired stating that she will never return to the music industry. And honestly, good for her.

Ryan Storey

Speaking of Britney, I really hope we get a Trainwreckords on the infamous "Britney Jean" album someday because... oof, there's a lot to talk about there to say the least.

Ryan Storey

Same thing happened the following year with Lifehouse's "Hanging By a Moment." Don't know what was going on with the Billboard charts that year, but those are only two of four instances of a song topping the year-end charts without hitting #1 during the year.

Nick Sestanovich

In 2002, I was mostly listening to alternative and hard rock stations while also flipping back and forth between MTV2 and VH-1. So my knowledge of that year is a mix of nu-metal, pop-punk, garage rock revival and stuff like Pink, Michelle Branch and Vanessa Carlton. I still don't remember anything about this Faith Hill album though.

Nick Sestanovich

I was wondering why Faith Hill went from being one of the biggest names in music to practically off the radar within a few years. I figured it had something to do with raising her kids, but this makes a lot more sense. Also, I've said this before and I'll say it again: When accounting for alt-country, Americana or whatever you call it, we are in a new golden age for women in country music: Margo Price, Brandy Clark, Lori McKenna, Holly Williams, Carrie Rodriguez, Margo Cilker, Sierra Farrell, Sarah Shook, Karen Jonas, Lindi Ortega, Rhiannon Giddens, The Highwomen, Aria Victoria...there's been so much great talent in just the last 15 years (and more diverse talent too. When's the last time you heard a woman of color on a pop-country station?) If there's ever been a reason to stop listening to radio in 2024, country music is it. Also, "Murder on Music Row" rules (particularly the Larry Cordle version). It's only become more timeless as the decades have rolled on.

Nick Sestanovich

Another banger Mr. the Shadows

Bailey Vogt

I’m surprised he’s not done Living Eyes by the Bee Gees yet. Feels like the kind of thing this series was made for.

Judgesaturn507

It’s official. You’ve become Grady Smith in the Shadows.

Judgesaturn507

I know (or care) so little about country music, that I thought this was a re-upload, but I was thinking of the Jewel episode. Listening to the trainwrecking album, "talent show ballad," is pretty accurate.

Dave Ruff

But I thought the old lady dropped it into the ocean?

Maria van Agthoven

Thanks for going into this time period! I grew up in rural Michigan, where every other station on the dial was country, but I went away to college (in LA) right at this inflection point. So I had no idea what the hell happened when I caught up on country music a decade later.

Lanth

even with all the time you spent talking about how big Faith was, you didn't mention my favorite fact about her peak era - Breathe topped the Billboard Year-End Hot 100 Songs of 2000 list. Higher than Say My Name. Higher than Bye Bye Bye. Higher than Country Grrammar. Higher than Try Again. Higher than Higher. Higher than Smooth by Santana ft. Rob Thomas. *it didn't even hit Number 1 on the actual Hot 100*

The Hand Of The People

Yeah, Cry got some airplay - I forget if it was mostly AC radio, but it got some attention.

Justin V

10:01-10:02 -- the clip lingers for a frame too long and flashes some faces on screen in a weird way. (Excellent ep, though!)

David L. Lebovitz

Yea, I was about to comment that that's from Hong Kong

Garf H.

Putting the He-Man remix over the 4 Non-Blondes video might be one of your best editing gags ever.

meffeww

I'm so glad to see an analysis of this era! It's something I think about a lot but don't really know that much about because I was also a child so didn't know the larger stories. Thank you Todd!

Jonathan

I noticed these too. Also a part at 20:09 that seems to be an error where there's no voice over during the footage.

TectonicImprov

In fairness I recall that Faith did say afterward that that was meant to be a joke and Carrie vouched for her on that.

Alan Kase

I think the only mistakes were editing ones where the jump cuts can be seen between transitions. That happens a bunch of times. But I didn't see any factual mistakes I don't think.

Alan Kase

Surprised that Cry didn't do better than that, I remember hearing that song all the time back in the day (I also watched a ton of VH1, which I'm pretty sure was one the only place hoisting that song/album up.)

Ryan V

I'm not *quite* sure I buy her being than Shania at the time, the numbers certainly don't back that up, but this is a pretty fascinating look at just what went wrong, for her and for the genre as a whole

Anthony Pierre Coco

(25:29) I can tell that's not Japanese lettering on that cover, a Japanese single appears to be the only thing tying the song to Lilo and Stitch https://www.discogs.com/release/4122997-Faith-Hill-Baby-You-Belong

forestaysaIL

I was not into the indie scene the way you were, but I also heard "Cry" a little (see what I did there?) on TV & radio.

Jon Heiman

Man, this was a weird one for me to hear at the time. Cry was a cover of a song from a few years prior by Angie Aparo, and my local radio station played his version a fair bit before Faith's version. So I was already inclined to hate it from the perspective of "big name swooping in to steal the little guy's glory" or something. Not exactly a good reason, I know. Listening to the original again, I'm tempted to say (1) the song wasn't that great to begin with, and (2) it kinda sounds a smidge more country than Faith's to me.

Erik Brown

Was waiting for that famous clip where Faith Hill lost a CMA to Carrie Underwood in 2006, and you can see her scream "WHAT?!" before the camera cuts away. I think that sums up the whole thing nicely.

SPBurke

And even in 2002, when I was mostly listening to Wilco, Low, PJ Harvey, and Harry Nilsson reissues, I still managed to hear “Cry” on a regular basis. I don’t if that says something about me or the time, but there you go.

Kristopher Bluth

If the logistics of copyright hell keeps you from ever making a video, so be it, but Cry is practically Patsy Cline’s Greatest Hits compared to the whole Chris Gaines debacle, as least as far as Trainwreckords go. I swear, I’ll watch the Behind the Music episode about him like it’s the Zapruder film.

Kristopher Bluth

Regarding Shania disappearing after a while: it was mostly due to her contracting a strain of Lyme disease that almost caused her to completely lose her voice. She had to go to therapy for years to get it back. She’s still out there performing and releasing music (she had a Vegas residency, and I even saw her last year), but that explains why she dropped off.

Tom Carter

Been looking forward to this! Just pointing out that there's many jump cuts of yourself whenever you come back from clips. Examples include 1:13, 2:44, 8:14, 8:49, 9:36, 9:54, 10:15, 13:07, 13:36, 13:56, 14:35, 15:30, 16:15, 16:30, 16:51, 17:09, 17:17, 19:56, 21:07, 22:01, 22:29, 22:50, 23:15, 23:38, 26:18, 28:58, 29:20, & 30:00

Jon Heiman

I'd also like to thank Todd for being such an entertaining YouTuber that I voluntarily sat through a video about country music.

Herbieguy98

I was half expecting a "Nirvana killed my career" tag at the beginning but a few minutes in I remembered: "Oh. Right. 9/11! Almost forgot."

Herbieguy98

I'm loving this turn towards country music as Todd's career progresses. Nobody out there is analyzing that enormously popular scene with as much nuance as Todd, and also it's just fun hearing some old songs from my childhood for nostalgia

Cody Baird

Okay but the title track to "Door to Door" slaps

Cody Baird

No Talking is such a perfect poster child for a concept like 'Trainwreckords'. I'm 100% certain he'll cover it eventually.

Herbieguy98

Lol just last night I was hoping you would post a new one soon

waywardlaser

Faith Hill: "I've got some stuff getting... kinda... funky"

Martin Sternelius

Funny you should mention the Fleetwood Mac album with Bekka Bramlett. Now there's material for a future episode.

Mouser

“I love how soft you touch me skin, like you’re touching the wings of a butterfly”

MarioDaBean

Nice to wake up to a brand new Trainwreckords. What I would like to see at some point: * Yes - Union: The lineup that got inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and a tour that was regarded as one of their best. However, the studio album was a mess no member liked, and there's that baffling decision to replace parts recorded by Rick Wakeman and Steve Howe with session musicians. * Various Artists - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band: Peter Frampton's stock was already on a steep decline and the Bee Gees didn't recover from this either. And that's not mentioning that had it not been for Grease it would have outright ruined RSO Records. Half the Beatles didn't like it, and the other half refused to watch it. * Emerson, Lake & Palmer - Love Beach: All the band wasn't in talking terms (especially after expensive tours) and were tax exiles in the Bahamas, and basically phoned it in when they had to release a pop-oriented album (because of aforementioned expenses). * The (Byrneless) Heads - No Talking, Just Head: The remaining members of Talking Heads try to go on without David Byrne, and get sued in the process. The studio album resulting from this mess was a failure, and it killed the Heads straight away. * Black Sabbath - Forbidden: It's fascinating when we have odd crossovers like Run-DMC and Stephan Jenkins. At the same time, we've had Public Enemy/Anthrax and Run-DMC/Aerosmith, and yet Black Sabbath/Ice-T didn't take. * The Cars - Door to Door: When you follow up a massive new sound album - then a massive greatest hits album - with a dud and force Ric Ocasek to take up production instead. * Happy Mondays - Yes Please!: Not only the end to their relevance, but also their label and the whole Baggy movement, all in a rather insane narrative that recording history has left us. * The Black Eyed Peas - The Beginning: God I feel old that I remember that this bunch was in its last bout of relevancy when I first saw your videos.

Graf von Tirol

A line read of yours suddenly gets cut off at around 16:24/16:25. Looks like no one has mentioned that one yet.

JasSpy

Yes. Not even remotely a question in my opinion. The first five seconds of "Oops...I Did It Again" should clear that right up.

Timur Hahn

I’m sure you’ve noticed this already but you need to remove the video track of your narration when the archive track is playing over it. We can see you on either side of the frame ❤️

Samuel Mitchell

Lil visual glitch 10:43, 15:15, 17:22, 17:43, 18:03, 18:19, 19:12, and more throughout - overlay issues. A few silent seconds at 20:09 as well. I remember 'Cry' and not liking it at all as a kid. Just so half hearted and drab. And 'Up!' was huge but yeah, nowhere for Shania to really go after that. Just a greatest hits CD with a few new singles to keep her on life support

Taylor Abrahamse

At 26:13, 26:38, 26:54 and 27:02, the footage is layered over you in a way I'm not sure is intentional or not. Other times has black bars covering the sides of the screens. Also, damn, she didn't get big in Japan.

Castleknackers

20:05-20:10 There's a line missing, Todd.

Juhani Aho

Did Britney pull of the "yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah" trick any better than Faith?

Jacqueline Sailer

There's a weird gap around 20:05 where it sounds like a comment from you is missing. Also the clips of you talking are visible in the background behind the other videos for much of the episode's length. Those are the only errors I caught.

the purple shaman

YOOOOOOOOO LATE NIGHT TRAINWRECKORDS THANK YOU TODD

StarCannonSupernova

I've been keeping up an ultimate "Worst Lines of Trainwreckords" list that includes such examples as "peñius colada", "modren man", and most recently, Kroeger the Ogre being super cringy with "funky little monkey". If you are reading this, have the time, have watched this new episode, and think you know what the worst line of lyrics from the covered album is that is in this episode, I would appreciate leaving a reply with your opinion. I want to get an accurate consensus.

JasSpy


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