Kitty Wells and Billy Wallace share the writer credit on “Whose Shoulder Will You Cry On.” Wells recorded it on 15 March 1953 at Castle Studio in Nashville’s Tulane Hotel, with Paul Cohen producing. Behind her were Eddie Hill on guitar, Shot Jackson on steel, Joseph Zinkan on bass and Dorris Warren on fiddle. Decca held the side for almost two years, then issued it in February 1955 as the flip of “Makin’ Believe” (9-29419). Both sides made Billboard’s country chart: “Makin’ Believe” reached No. 2 and “Whose Shoulder Will You Cry On” No. 7. The song went onto her LP Kitty Wells’ Country Hit Parade (Decca DL 8293, 1956). She recorded it again at Columbia’s Nashville studio on 30 January 1963, with Owen Bradley producing, at a session given to remakes of her early records, “It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels” among them.
The singer is done with a man who once meant everything to her. He wore out her love with his running around, and she has decided he never loved her at all. She no longer trusts him and sends him off to try his luck elsewhere. His tears are only what he owes for the lies that wrecked her, and she has slipped free of him. Each verse ends on the same question: who will comfort him now?
Bluegrass singers took it up in the 1960s. Red Allen & the Kentuckians recorded it at Mastertone Studios in New York on 3 December 1965 for the County LP Bluegrass Country (County 704, 1966). Porter Church played banjo, Wayne Yates mandolin and Bill Yates bass. Two years later, on 9 December 1967 in Glenrock, Pennsylvania, Del McCoury cut it for Del McCoury Sings Bluegrass (Arhoolie F 5006, 1968), with Bill Emerson on banjo, Wayne Yates again on mandolin, Billy Baker on fiddle and Tommy Neal on bass. Later recordings include IIIrd Tyme Out’s, with Russell Moore on guitar, on Puttin’ New Roots Down (Rebel, 1992), and Bob Paisley’s on Color of the Blues (Strictly Country, 2003). Dan Tyminski sang it on his Rounder album Wheels (2008), with Ron Stewart on banjo, Adam Steffey on mandolin, Justin Moses on fiddle and Barry Bales on bass.
