"All I Could Do Was Cry" is a

doo-wop Doo-wop (also spelled doowop and doo wop) is a genre of rhythm and blues music that originated in African-American communities during the 1940s, mainly in the large cities of the United States, including New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Chica ...

/ rhythm and blues single recorded in 1960, and released in March that year by the singer

Etta James Jamesetta Hawkins (January 25, 1938 – January 20, 2012), known professionally as Etta James, was an American singer who performed in various genres, including gospel, blues, jazz, R&B, rock and roll, and soul. Starting her career in 1954, sh ...

. It was written for James by Chess songwriter Billy Davis, Berry Gordy and his sister Gwen Gordy. The song eventually peaked at number 2 on the US ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

'' R&B

chart A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can represent tabu ...

and number 33 on the

pop Pop or POP may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * Pop music, a musical genre Artists * POP, a Japanese idol group now known as Gang Parade * Pop!, a UK pop group * Pop! featuring Angie Hart, an Australian band Albums * ''Pop'' (G ...

chart. James would later re-record the song in the early 1990s.

Background

The song was said to be inspired by James' former boyfriend Harvey Fuqua dating Davis' former girlfriend, who was Gwen. Gordy and Fuqua later married the same year the song was recorded, which likely added to the tension in James'

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...

y vocals.

Chart performance

;Etta James version

Cover versions

* Ike & Tina Turner released a version of the song on their live album '' The Ike & Tina Turner Show - Vol. 2'' in 1965. They also included another live rendition on their 1969 live album ''In Person'', and previously un-issued studio version was released on the compilation album '' The Kent Years'' in 2000. *

Beyoncé Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter ( ; born September 4, 1981) is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. Beyoncé's boundary-pushing artistry and vocals have made her the most influential female musician of the 21st century, according to ...

covered the song while filming her role depicting James in the 2008 film, '' Cadillac Records''. *Motown vocalist Yvonne Fair covered this standard in 1969, but was never released. The recording appears on the "Motown Unreleased 1969" CD series, released in 2019.

References

{{authority control 1960 songs 1960 singles Etta James songs Songs written by Berry Gordy Songs written by Billy Davis (songwriter) Songs written by Gwen Gordy Fuqua Ike & Tina Turner songs