Billy Joel was once asked in an interview what the hardest thing to do onstage was, and without hesitation he replied, "whistling." There was a song on one of his early albums with a whistling intro, and he dreaded performing it for that reason.
I myself have dealt with this dilemma by never appearing on stage.
Or for that matter, ever writing a song with whistling in it. I hate songs with whistling in them.
There! Problem solved!
That left harmonies as our big stumbling block. It's hard not to feel like a complete goof doing them, especially for my cousin, who had very little experience singing.
It's a bit like a tightrope act, with Giggles the Clown constantly jiggling the wire and threatening to bring the whole thing down in a heap. (You can hear him puttering around in some of the more ragged edges.)
Or worse, one's kid sister could stick her head into the door and exclaim, "Hey, you guys sound just like a barbershop quartet!" When that chilling verdict rang out, there was nothing to do but down our tools and head for the local pub to try and drown our sorrows. (Well, we had kind of planned that anyway, but now we had an official excuse.)
========================[Verse]
Insidious wind come creeping up
A sly typhoon stirring up the dust
Secret tornado
Imploding the houseYou'll cry me a river [rpt.]
The crops you planted
Overtaken by worms
Your petri dishes
Overwhelmed by germs
Now the screws are on
And it's your turnTo cry me a river [rpt.]
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[Chorus]
The Mississippi or the Nile will do
I want you to hurt
Like I hurt for youThe Columbia
Or maybe the Rhine
When you fill up the oceans
You'll be done your cryin'[ad lib]
You'll cry me a river [rpt.]
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[Verse, Instr.]
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[rpt. 1st Chorus]
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[Verse]
An eye for an eye
A tooth for a tooth
Vengeance is mine
And it's the solemn truth
Back to the stone age
And the pain of youthYou'll cry me a river [rpt.]
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[Chorus]
The Amazon
Where it's wild and slow
The Vistula
Where the diesel boats go
The Ganges with its banks on fire
The waters are risin'
And they're gonna run higher
-------------------------------------------------[ad. lib., out]
You're gonna cry
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Cry Me A River Warning: Embedded QuickTime audio.
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I Got A Girl
The Very Last Man On Earth
Golddigger
Hangin' In The Park
Just So You Know
Caught By Computer
Me & J.B.
By The Lake
Dirty Little Secret
Fire In The Waxworks
Warning Shots
The Chase
Just Like A Woman