‘Teardrops’ For George Harrison
Sometimes even former Beatles weren’t guaranteed hit singles. In the summer of 1981, George Harrison was coming off a major hit with his tribute to John Lennon, ‘All Those Years Ago,’ and its parent album ‘Somewhere In England,’ was a top 20 item on both sides of the Atlantic, and elsewhere from Austria to Australia.
But this week 34 years ago, the track ‘Teardrops,’ written and produced by George, was released as a single from the album, and missed the mainstream charts in both the US and UK. With another track from the LP, ‘Save The World,’ on the b-side of the Dark Horse 45, ‘Teardrops’ got some rock radio airplay in the US, climbing as high as No. 51 on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock Tracks chart.
But the single fell narrowly short of the Hot 100, “bubbling under” at No. 102, and missed the UK bestsellers altogether. Harrison wouldn’t appear again for six years, until he swept back into the mainstream consciousness with ‘Got My Mind Set On You.’
‘Teardrops,’ like ‘All Those Years Ago,’ was one of the tracks that George added to the revised running order of ‘Somewhere In England’ when the first version was turned down by Warner Brothers. An upbeat, poppy number which belied the lovelorn lyrics (“I’ve had my fill of crying buckets full of teardrops”), it reflected the sound of the time with a strong synthesizer flavour.
Indeed, the album featured no fewer than five accomplished guests — Gary Brooker, Al Kooper, Mike Moran, Ray Cooper and Neil Larsen — all credited on synths, as well as Harrison himself. But while that’s the dominant sound of the single, you can still hear George playing some of his distinctive guitar in the mix. ‘Teardrops’ came back to the fore when ‘Somewhere In England’ became part of the ‘Dark Horse Years 1976-1992’ box set in 2004.
UK English
Michael Vincent
July 24, 2015 at 7:07 pm
Both Teardrops, All Those Years Ago, and Cheer Down, influenced the tribute song I wrote in George’s memory, called Hari’s On His Way, shortly after George passed away: https://myspace.com/michaelvmusic/music/song/hari-s-on-his-way-78652885-86620225 I had the very good fortune of knowing one of Martin Scorsese’s former film editors, who sent the song on my behalf to Sikelia Productions in NYC, and got a very nice call telling me how much they loved the song while they were working on Living In the Material World. They (David Tedesche – film editor for LITMW) said, “It sounds more like George than George!” I’ve been trying ever since to get it to ‘someone’ within the GH camp (even sent copies to Ringo’s, Paul’s, Clapton’s, Petty’s publicists, hoping to get it out there) in an effort to provide a memorable musical tribute to good ol’ George (tho The Concert for George was a fabulous way to do that as well, of course). Anyway, if you’d like to share it with someone who might pick it up, I’m considering changing the title to Here Come Stars (in connex’n to George’s Here Comes the Sun (and Here Comes the Moon), and the ‘stars’ that came out during the Concert for George. Cheer down…(thanks for listening)…, Michael Vincent
Sandy
July 24, 2015 at 7:35 pm
Very nice Michael…..changing out the title to Here Come Stars is a good idea too 🙂
Sandy
July 24, 2015 at 7:35 pm
Very nice Michael…..changing out the title to Here Come Stars is a good idea too 🙂
David Garcia
July 24, 2015 at 7:45 pm
Very good song!!! Right fm the start it has that unique George’s solo sound.
Very well done!!!!
Grant Collinsworth
July 24, 2015 at 8:20 pm
Its quite a novel song and well delivered. The thing though, is that it takes more than one piece of work to gain momentum for the circles you tried to expose it to… It takes a significantly large body of work,…If you try to do that with the already familiar signature, you do run the risk of getting scoffed at by the same circles… ( I have it on good authority that they would much prefer that you offer your own signature…something new , different and equally innovative) Just saying. Other than that , its pretty good song…