Charlie Puth has partnered with legendary saxophonist Kenny G for the first time on a new track titled “Cry”.
The collaboration serves as the third preview of Puth’s forthcoming fourth studio album, Whatever’s Clever! (arriving March 27), and follows earlier singles “Changes” and “Beat Yourself Up.”
Written by Puth, Kenny G, and BloodPop®, and produced by Puth alongside BloodPop®, “Cry” blends pop and jazz influences. The recording also features Stanley Rudolph on drums, Leddie Garcia on percussion, Curt Chamber on guitar, and Pastor Funk on bass.
Puth described the track’s emotional core, saying, “’Cry’ is about allowing yourself to feel things fully. I grew up watching people I admire carry emotional weight quietly. This song is a reminder that expressing emotion is not weakness – it’s human, and sometimes it’s exactly what helps you grow.”
He also shared the unusual path that led to the collaboration. “You know how people manifest things by writing their goals in their diary? Well, I do something similar, except with music. One day I said to myself, ‘Gosh, I really want a song on this album that has a Kenny G solo.’ This is Kenny G, by the way. But there was an issue. I don’t know Kenny G, but I had an idea. I’m going to take the notes from an existing Kenny G song here. Are all the Kenny G notes, and I made my own Kenny G solo without Kenny G. This was my manifestation, because in my mind, I was going to send this to Kenny G, and hopefully he would play for real. I added a little guitar. And when we added the piano, it started to come alive.”
He continued, “I sent it off to a few people that said they knew a friend who knew a friend who might know him, and the manifestation was officially out to the universe. But I didn’t hear from anybody for a couple of days, so I thought maybe I’ll just finish writing the song and he’ll get around to hearing it. It needed lyrics anyway, so I wrote this. More time went by, I still hadn’t heard from him, but I just kept building the song. We added a choir. Still hadn’t heard from Kenny G It’s okay. I’ll fly to Nashville. Let’s record some guitar and bass. Then, I got a mysterious text message, ‘Hi, Charlie. This is KG.’ Who’s KG? Oh, I was typing so fast. I was like, ‘I think you’ll like it, but it’s okay if you don’t.’ In his calm voice, he said, ‘Just let me hear it.’ I send off the demo to Kenny G. He writes back, give me one hour and I get this back. The manifestation is real.”
Stream ‘Cry’ – HERE.
Preorder Whatever’s Clever! – HERE.
Editorial credit: Jamie Lamor Thompson / Shutterstock.com
