“She Needs Someone to Hold Her (When She Cries)”
Conway Twitty
Written by Raymond Smith
Billboard
#1 (2 weeks)
February 3 – February 10, 1973
One of the cool things about this seventies feature is hearing familiar hits in their original order of release.
If you’d asked me a year ago, I would’ve told you that “She Needs Someone to Hold Her (When She Cries)” was a solid retread of the superior “This Time I’ve Hurt Her More Than She Loves Me.”
But that record doesn’t come out for another two years! So this is more like an early exploration of an idea that Twitty would engage with more effectively down the road.
It’s a solid record in its own right, mind you. It has the compelling fiddle that features in so many early Conway hits, and his vocals are beyond reproach.
It just doesn’t have that extra layer of accountability that you find with his best hits. Our protagonist is really upset that she’s going to cry alone, but never tells us why she’s crying and what role he played in it.
For me, that holds this one back from perfection. But I’m not going to skip it if it pops up on shuffle.
“She Needs Someone to Hold Her (When She Cries)” gets a B+.
Every No. 1 Single of the Seventies
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I don’t get it. Conway has 40 #1 hits, but you only ever hear the same three on classic-country formats. If even his “B” material is this good, then there is no excuse to act like he was practically a one-hit wonder.
Other than an album track of “White Lightning” on one of his early Deca albums, it was almost impossible for Conway Twitty to perform a song poorly.
B+ is about right
This production is so typical early 70’s sound and I love it. Great performance by Conway. “A-“.
I’m going to agree with Paul. Conway’s run from the late 60’s to mid 70’s is nothing but country gold. His albums from this period have a lot of great performances of songs that were just as good as the singles but remained album tracks. Also some of the covers blow away the originals but alas Conway was one of country music’s best vocalists. Great song. It’ll be interesting to read about the next single. One of Merle Haggard’s least talked about # 1 hits.