About The Song
For Cryin’ Out Loud appears on The Statler Brothers’ 1986 album Four for the Show, released by Mercury Records. Jimmy Fortune and John Rimel wrote the song. Jerry Kennedy produced the recording. The track runs just over three minutes and sits as the seventh song on the album.
Four for the Show peaked at number 7 on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart. The album produced two singles, “Count On Me” and “Forever,” but “For Cryin’ Out Loud” itself was never issued as a single and did not appear on the country charts.
The lyric offers quiet support to someone still carrying the weight of a broken relationship. The narrator sees the hurt and the anger that memory still stirs. Pride has kept the pain locked inside for too long. The invitation is simple: sit down, open the place that hurts most, and let the tears come. There is no need to stay strong in front of the one person offering a shoulder. The repeated assurance is that the listener will feel better for cryin’ out loud.
Fortune, who had joined the group a few years earlier after Lew DeWitt’s departure, co-wrote several songs during this period. Rimel, the same collaborator who worked with him on “More Than a Name on a Wall,” helped shape this one as well. The song fits the group’s long practice of writing directly about ordinary emotional moments without decoration.
The album arrived during a steady commercial stretch for the Statlers in the mid-1980s. Their television presence on The Nashville Network kept their material in front of a wide audience, and “For Cryin’ Out Loud” was performed on The Statler Brothers Show. The live performances kept the song circulating among fans even without single release.
Its strength lies in the plain permission it grants. Grief does not always need to stay private. Sometimes the better choice is to stop holding it in and simply cry out loud. The Statler Brothers delivered that permission with the same clear harmonies and straightforward storytelling that marked their best-known work.
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Lyric
I know it’s been rough on
you and I can see he heard you back I know that Love’s been tough onyou his memory still makes you mad but far too long you kep it
in Let It Burn to hold down deep
inside I can’t seem to find your heart when it’s hidden by your
pride so sit down beside me here and let me hold you
close open up your heart
exactly where it hurts the most let the tears flow down your
cheeks no need to be so
proud you’ll feel a whole lot better now for crying out loud
but crying out
loud you can use my
should for crying out
loud don’t make it any
hard let the tears flow down your cheeks Lo me to be so proud
you’ll feel a whole lot better now for crying out loud
For Crying Out loud