Songoftheday 07/23/24 - I would have given you all of my heart, but there's someone who's torn it apart...

 

 

"The First Cut Is The Deepest" - Sheryl Crow

from the album The Very Best Of Sheryl Crow (2003)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #14 (two weeks)

Weeks in the Top-40: 27

 

Today's song comes from singer/songwriter Sheryl Crow, who had returned to the top-20 on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 chart in the summer of 2002 with the breezy acoustic pop of "Soak Up The Sun".  The following year, Crow guested on rapper turned rock singer (and eventual cult member) Kid Rock's song "Picture" from his Cocky album. However since her label, A&M, didn't want to cut into promotion of her C'mon C'mon album, her duet wasn't approved for a single release, causing Kid Rock to re-record the song (which Crow co-wrote) with alt-country singer Alison Moorer. Nevertheless, since radio was playing the Sheryl/Kid version predominantly, the song was listed on the charts with both female counterparts as it made the top five in the spring of 2003. Most of that year had Crow popping up on soundtracks and as cameo's on other's records, until the end-of-year release of her hits collection The Very Best Of Sheryl Crow. The set included "Picture" as well as two new recordings, with a cover song released as the lead single.

"The First Cut Is The Deepest" was written by singer/songwriter Cat Stevens (now Yusuf Islam), who included it in his sophomore effort New Masters in 1967...

Since then, many different artists have covered the song, with the most remembered being the version from Rod Stewart from his Night On The Town album. Rod's take topped the British singles chart for four weeks, and peaked at #21 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1977...

It would be Stewart's version that clearly inspired Crow's which went for the more laid back and weary delivery of the lyrics about trying to convince a new love to help her get over the pain of an ex. It's not a very reassuring song to the person these words are directed to, but it's a reality many of us have had to face up to in the horrid world of love and romance. I've got to say though that even with Sheryl's vocals being technically perfect, they're pretty sterile of the raw emotion that Rod expresses in his classic. The production from John Shanks is pleasant but standard corporate rock procedure, casting this with her vocals to be a much sunnier affair than it should be. And the music video had Sheryl seemingly gleefully leading horses around the desert....

Nevertheless, Sheryl's take on "First Cut" brought her back to the Hot 100 top-40 in March of 2004. On the radio, the song climbed to #10 on Billboard's Mainstream Top-40 chart, and even made the Country Songs airplay list at #35. But its biggest success was on the older-skewing radio formats, spending four weeks at #1 on the Adult Album Alternative (or "Triple-A") Rock chart, two week atop the Adult Contemporary (or "easy listening") list, and a week at #1 on the Adult Top-40 station tally. Internationally, the single made the top-40 in Ireland (#13), New Zealand (#19), Hungary (#20), Austria (#31), and the United Kingdom (#37). The Very Best Of Sheryl Crow album, released in November of 2003, took two weeks at #2 on the Billboard 200 sales tally, spending 81 weeks on the list and going on to sell over three million copies. At the Grammy Awards in 2005, Crow was nominated for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, losing to Norah Jones for her adult-pop nugget "Sunrise". 

The other new recording on the hits collection was her own composition (with Shanks) on "Light In Your Eyes". The song hit #3 on the Triple-A Rock radio chart, #10 on the Adult Top-40 list, and #36 on the Adult Contemporary, but only "bubbled under" the Hot 100 at #121. (It also was a minor British hit at #73.)

Sheryl will be back to the series.

(4/10)

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There was a different mix that got played on country radio that was tacked on to the CD...

Next up, Crow performing the song at Farm Aid in 2003...

and lastly, in concert in 2017...

Up tomorrow: Canadian pop-punk band sing about flawlessness.