Song
The song features Shannon Hoon of Blind Melon on backing vocals. Shannon grew up in the small town of Dayton, Indiana, which neighbors Axl Rose's hometown of Lafayette, Indiana. The two became friends when they subsequently met in Los Angeles and discovered they were from the same state. He also appears in the video for the song. It was originally intended to be the first commercial single release before the Illusions were released in 1991, but "You Could Be Mine" was chosen instead to coincide with the release of the movie Terminator 2.
"Don't Cry" forms a segment of the Illusions Trilogy, according to singer Axl Rose. Along with "Estranged" and "November Rain," it forms a narrative inspired in part by the short story "Without You" by Del James.
During the interviews for their Making F@#$ing Videos edition for "Don't Cry", Rose stated that the song is about a woman leaving a man. The song was written about a girl that Izzy used to go out with, and Axl was attracted to. Here are some quotes from Axl about the incident: "It was a girl that Izzy had gone out with, and I was really attracted to her, and they split up, and we wrote the song", "I was sitting outside the Roxy, and you know, I was like really in love with this person, and she was realising this wasn't going to work, she was doing her things, she was telling me goodbye, and I like sat down, and just started crying, and she was telling me 'don't cry'. Next night we got together and wrote the song in 5 minutes. He'd been through some things with her, himself".
The song peaked at #10 on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming the band's fifth Top 10 hit there.
Read more about this topic: Don't Cry
Famous quotes containing the word song:
“But see, the Virgin blest
Hath laid her Babe to rest:
Time is our tedious song should here have ending;
Heaven’s youngest teemed star,
Hath fixed her polished car,
Her sleeping Lord with handmaid lamp attending;
And all about the courtly stable,
Bright-harnessed angels sit in order serviceable.”
—John Milton (1608–1674)
“Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm: for love is strong as death; jealousy is cruel as the grave: the coals thereof are coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame.”
—Bible: Hebrew Song of Solomon 8:6.
“Even their song is not a sure thing.
It is not a language;
it is a kind of breathing.
They are two asthmatics
whose breath sobs in and out
through a small fuzzy pipe.”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)