Cry

Godley & Crème's 1985 masterpiece The History Mix is routinely regarded among the most incomprehensible albums in the duo's entire catalog, a disconcerting succession of remixed song clips, snippets and effects that, together, build up into a hall-of-mirrors recreation of their past 15 years of work. The exception to that bewildering scenario is "Cry", a newly composed number that drifts into view via the "big boys don't cry" sequence lifted from "I'm Not In Love" and initially most shocking because it doesn't promptly disintegrate into another mass of samples and slithers. Rather, it stays the course to emerge the only "complete" song on the entire original LP (the CD reissue appends a few more), and one of the most conventional tracks in the duo's entire canon. Even with its drifting rhythms clattered by a trademark Trevor Horn production, its simple "girl-leaves-boy" type lyric was straightforward enough for even daytime radio to embrace. Meanwhile, the accompanying video - a succession of different faces fading into one another - became both an MTV staple and, later, an immortal highlight of the Beavis & Butthead cartoon, the song's protracted series of false endings sending the pair into paroxysms of panic. Of the various mixes of the song that abound, the best remains that found on the original album. The 7-inch single edit trims off much of the full song's mantric majesty, while JJ Jeczalik's 12-inch extension is simply too cluttered. Which is a strange complaint to make about a track taken from The History Mix!