More than three decades after The Judds topped the country charts with “Cry Myself to Sleep,” Wynonna Judd has put a new spin on the classic.
On Friday, September 29, Judd, 59, released a reimagined version of the song she and her late mother, Naomi Judd, made famous in the mid-1980s. This time, Wynonna’s fellow country legend Trisha Yearwood jumped on the track, which effortlessly blended country, pop and rock.
“And day after day / You’ve been treating me bad / Friends come up and say / Why do you take all that?” sing Judd and Yearwood. “‘Cause it’s making me moan / And it’s making me weep / So I’ll go home / And cry myself to sleep.”
“Cry Myself to Sleep” is the second single from the upcoming record A Tribute to the Judds. The album will feature artists like Gwen Stefani, Blake Shelton, Jellyroll, Reba McEntire, Carly Pearce, LeAnn Rimes, Ashley McBryde and Dolly Parton singing 14 songs that the mother-daughter duo made famous.
“To have all of these artists, most of which are my friends, come together and lend their voices and artistry to reimagine these songs is so special,” Wynonna said in a statement announcing the album, which arrives on October 27. “These songs are so timeless and I am so excited for them to live on for generations to come.”
The album was initially intended to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Judds signing their first record contract, but the project was expanded to include a partnership with the National Alliance of Mental Illness after Naomi died by suicide at age 76 in April 2022.
While attending the 2023 People’s Choice Country Awards on Thursday, September 28, Wynonna paid tribute to her mother as she accepted the Country Champion Award. “So I graduated high school in 1982 and [in] 1983 got a record deal with RCA records and I got on a silver Eagle bus with my mama and did her hair every night for 10 years for free,” she said during the ceremony. “I started there, 10 years later, she would have to retire, and I would go on to make country music ‘herstory.’”
Wynonna also recalled the heartbreaking loss of her mother. “I walked into the room and I held her in my arms and I kissed her on the forehead, shut her eyes and said, ‘I love you, Mom,’” she said. “And I walked out of that room, went home, got up the next morning and showed up at the Country Music Hall of Fame to be inducted into the Hall of Fame. You know why? Because that’s how much we love music regardless of what has happened to me and who I show up and I show out.”
The original version of “Cry Myself to Sleep” was written by Paul Kennerly and recorded by The Judds for their 1985 album, Rockin’ with the Rhythm. As the fourth single from the album, “Cry Myself to Sleep” reached the top of the Billboard US Hot Country Songs chart in 1987, where it spent a week at No. 1. Overall, the song spent 16 weeks on the country chart, per Billboard.
