Songfacts®:

• "Cry" was written by Angie Aparo, a singer/songwriter with a large following in the Southeast US. Aparo also recorded his own version of this song which was released on his 2000 debut album, The American. Faith Hill is a fan of Aparo and fell in love with this song when she heard it. She made it the lead single and title track of her fifth album.
• The song explores a heartbreak that's exacerbated by the nonplussed reaction of the heartbreaker. After all they'd been through, it would be nice if the guy could at least shed a tear.
  
  It had been a while since Faith Hill had to deal with any kind of breakup like this: She married fellow country music star Tim McGraw in 1996, six years before she released "Cry."
• A cover by The Voice (Season 3) winner Cassadee Pope landed at #60 on the Hot 100 in December 2012 after she sang it in the show's finale.
• Faith Hill performed "Cry" on Saturday Night Live in 2002, her first turn as musical guest on the show.
• The album isn't specifically titled after the song, as Hill sees the word "Cry" as conveying a range of emotions. She explained: "I really wanted to name the album Cry, not because of the single, but because there's so many places on this album that are full of so many kinds of emotions. For me, when I see the word 'cry,' I don't necessarily think of it as being an emotion that is used from a sad moment from your life. I happen to shed tears for a lot of reasons - to be happy and lots of places in my life."
• The music video was directed by Mike Lipscombe and did very well on CMT.
  
  "I really wanted to send another message with my video," Hill said of the clip, which finds the rain-soaked singer recalling painful memories. "For this particular song, I felt that the song is so deep and emotional... this experience of this person who's walking through their life and looking at the choices they've made - the happy times and the sad times. Hopefully, in reflecting on all those moments, they come out of it realizing that maybe they're going to be all right. It's a dark video. I look different than I've ever looked in any video, but that was important for me with this particular song."
• Faith Hill made a big push into pop music a few years earlier with her 1999 album Breathe, with a title track that went to #2 on the Hot 100. In 2001 she sang "There You'll Be," the Oscar-nominated song from the movie Pearl Harbor. That was her last big pop hit; "Cry" went to #33, and Hill returned to her country roots for her next album, Fireflies, which includes the #1 Country hit "Mississippi Girl."
• Faith Hill earned her fourth Grammy Award when she took the prize for Best Country Vocal Performance, Female, for "Cry."