"Cry Me a River" by Justin Timberlake"Cry Me a River" was released in 2002.
Justin Timberlake/YouTubeWhen Greta Gerwig wrote Justin Timberlake a letter to ask if she could use "Cry Me a River" in her directorial debut "Lady Bird," she aptly described the track as "sultry and sullen and infectious — what 'Gimme Shelter' must have felt like to the kids of the late '60s."
Gerwig was 19 when "Cry Me a River" was released, just a few years younger than Timberlake was when the song was written — or, more accurately, when it came spilling out after a heated phone call with his then-girlfriend.
While that hardly sounds like a winning formula, "Cry Me a River" succeeds precisely because it's not bound by common laws of etiquette and chill.
If most breakup songs are like sitcom episodes, "Cry Me a River" is the vengeance plot on a soap opera.
Persons:
Justin Timberlake, Greta Gerwig, Bird, Gerwig, Timberlake, Timbaland