"Tears Are Not Enough" is a 1985 charity single recorded by a supergroup of

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

artists, under the name Northern Lights, to raise funds for relief of the 1983–85 famine in Ethiopia. It was one of a number of such supergroup singles recorded between December 1984 and April 1985, along with Band Aid's "

Do They Know It's Christmas? "Do They Know It's Christmas?" is a charity song written in 1984 by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure to raise money for the 1983–1985 famine in Ethiopia. It was first recorded by Band Aid, a supergroup assembled by Geldof and Ure consisting of pop ...

" in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

USA for Africa "We Are the World" is a charity record, charity single recorded by the charity supergroup, supergroup USA for Africa in 1985. It was written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie and produced by Quincy Jones for the album ''We Are the World (al ...

's "

We Are the World "We Are the World" is a charity single recorded by the supergroup USA for Africa in 1985. It was written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie and produced by Quincy Jones for the album '' We Are the World''. With sales in excess of 20 milli ...

" in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

, "

Cantaré, cantarás "Cantaré, cantarás" ''(I Will Sing, You Will Sing)'' is a single by various Latin American icons called circumstantially "Hermanos", and it was released in 1985. The B-side is conformed by Herb Alpert's "African Flame". The song was considered ...

" by a supergroup of Latin American and Spanish singers, Chanteurs sans Frontières's "

Éthiopie "Éthiopie" is a charity song recorded in 1985 in music, 1985 by the collective band known under the name 'Chanteurs sans Frontières'. The song achieved a huge success in France, topping the chart for two months and becoming one of the best-selli ...

" in

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

, and Fondation Québec-Afrique's " Les Yeux de la faim" in

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

. Although recorded independently of the USA for Africa project, it was included on the full-length ''

'' album. The project was organized by Bruce Allen, who brought together a large group of artists to record a song written by

David Foster David Walter Foster (born November 1, 1949) is a Canadian record producer, composer, arranger, and musician. He has won 16 Grammy Awards from 47 nominations. His career began as a keyboardist for the pop group Skylark in the early 1970s befor ...

Jim Vallance James Douglas Vallance (born May 31, 1952) is a Canadian songwriter, arranger and producer. He is best known as the songwriting partner of Canadian musician Bryan Adams. Vallance began his professional career as the original drummer and main song ...

Bryan Adams Bryan Guy Adams (born November 5, 1959) is a British and Canadian singer-songwriter, musician, record producer, and photographer. He is estimated to have sold between 75 million and more than 100 million album, records and Single (music), si ...

, Rachel Paiement, Paul Hyde and

Bob Rock Robert Jens Rock (born April 19, 1954) is a Canadian record producer, recording engineer and musician. In 1976, Rock joined Little Mountain Sound Studios, starting out as a recording engineer and sound mixer. During his time there, he coll ...

. Foster and Vallance wrote the music and initial lyrics, Adams completed the English lyrics, Paiement wrote the one French verse, Rock & Hyde contributed the song title. The song was recorded on February 10, 1985 at Manta Sound studios in

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

. Foster revealed the melody of the song was originally offered to filmmaker

Joel Schumacher Joel T. Schumacher (; August 29, 1939 – June 22, 2020) was an American film director, producer and screenwriter. Raised in New York City by his mother, Schumacher graduated from Parsons School of Design and originally became a fashion designe ...

as incidental music for his film '' St. Elmo's Fire''. Schumacher reported hated it but was later, in Foster's words, "really pissed" when it showed up later as a charity single. The song was issued as the album's second and final single by

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American reco ...

on May 1, 1985, and quickly reached number one on the Canadian

RPM Revolutions per minute (abbreviated rpm, RPM, rev/min, r/min, or r⋅min−1) is a unit of rotational speed (or rotational frequency) for rotating machines. One revolution per minute is equivalent to hertz. Standards ISO 80000-3:2019 def ...

chart and was number one for two weeks. It also finished at number 15 on the year-end Canadian charts for that year. The song's video also received extensive airplay on

MuchMusic Much is a Canadian English language discretionary specialty channel owned by BCE Inc. through its Bell Media subsidiary that airs programming aimed at teenagers and young adults. It is headquartered at 299 Queen Street West in what was o ...

. The vocals were recorded at Manta Sound Studios in downtown

on Sunday, February 10, 1985.

Gordon Lightfoot Gordon Meredith Lightfoot Jr. (November 17, 1938 – May 1, 2023) was a Canadian singer-songwriter who achieved worldwide success and helped define the singer-songwriter era of the 1970s. Widely considered one of Canada's greatest songwriters, ...

drove himself to the recording in a pick-up truck.

Neil Young Neil Percival Young (born November 12, 1945) is a Canadian and American singer-songwriter. After embarking on a music career in Winnipeg in the 1960s, Young moved to Los Angeles, forming the folk rock group Buffalo Springfield. Since the begi ...

and

Joni Mitchell Roberta Joan Mitchell (née Anderson; born November 7, 1943) is a Canadian and American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and painter. As one of the most influential singer-songwriters to emerge from the 1960s folk music circuit, Mitch ...

arrived together in a taxi. Mark Holmes of Platinum Blonde arrived in a white stretch limousine. Bryan Adams performed a live version of "Tears Are Not Enough" on July 13, 1985 during his

Live Aid Live Aid was a two-venue benefit concert and music-based fundraising initiative held on Saturday, 13 July 1985. The event was organised by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure to raise further funds for relief of the 1983–1985 famine in Ethiopia, a m ...

performance in Philadelphia. On December 22, 1985,

CBC Television CBC Television (also known as CBC TV, or simply CBC) is a Television in Canada, Canadian English-language terrestrial television, broadcast television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcasting, p ...

aired a 90-minute documentary by John Zaritsky on the song and its creation. A CBC reporter, Brian Stewart, had been the first Western journalist to bring the famine in Ethiopia to worldwide attention. The film was a

Genie Award The Genie Awards were given out annually by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television to recognize the best of Canadian cinema from 1980–2012. They succeeded the Canadian Film Awards (1949–1978), known as the "Etrog Awards" for sculptor ...

nominee for Best Documentary Film at the 7th Genie Awards in 1986. By 1990, the project had raised $3.2 million for famine relief projects in Africa. Ten percent of the funds raised was set aside to assist Canadian

food bank A food bank or food pantry is a non-profit, charitable organization that distributes food to those who have difficulty purchasing enough to avoid hunger, usually through intermediaries like food pantries and soup kitchens. Some food banks distrib ...

Performers

Solo vocalists (in order)

Heard in duos or trios

Mike Reno Mike Reno (born Joseph Michael Rynoski; born January 8, 1955) is a Canadian musician, singer and the lead singer of the rock band Loverboy. He fronted other bands, including Moxy (band), Moxy, before helping form Loverboy. Reno also sang for the ...

(

Loverboy Loverboy is a Canadian Rock music, rock band formed in Calgary, Alberta in 1979. Loverboy's hit singles, particularly "Turn Me Loose (Loverboy song), Turn Me Loose" and "Working for the Weekend", have become arena rock staples and are still hear ...

) with Liberty Silver * Carroll Baker,

Ronnie Hawkins Ronald Cornett Hawkins (January 10, 1935 – May 29, 2022) was an American rock and roll singer, long based in Canada, whose career spanned more than half a century. His career began in Arkansas, United States, where he was born and raised. He ...

, and

Murray McLauchlan Murray Edward McLauchlan, (born 30 June 1948) is a Canadian singer, songwriter, guitarist, pianist, and harmonica player. He is best known for his Canadian hits "The Farmer's Song," "Whispering Rain," and "Down by the Henry Moore". Early life ...

* Véronique Béliveau,

Robert Charlebois Robert Charlebois (born June 25, 1944) is a Canadian author, composer, musician, performer and actor. Charlebois was born in Montreal, Quebec. Among his best known songs are ''Lindberg'' (the duo with Louise Forestier in particular), ''Ordi ...

, and Claude Dubois (in French) *

with

Donny Gerrard Donald Bradford Gerrard (March 19, 1946 – February 3, 2022) was a Canadian singer. He was a member of the band Skylark in the early 1970s, and in later years performed and recorded as a baritone backup singer for artists such as Mavis Staples ...

( Skylark) * Alfie Zappacosta with Lisa Dal Bello * Carole Pope ( Rough Trade) and Paul Hyde (

Payola$ Payolas (stylized as Payola$) was a Canadian rock band that was most prominent in the 1980s. Evolving from a new wave sound toward mainstream pop rock, they were best known for the single "Eyes of a Stranger", from their 1982 album '' No Strang ...

) * Salome Bey, Mark Holmes ( Platinum Blonde), and Lorraine Segato (

The Parachute Club The Parachute Club was a Canadian band formed in Toronto in 1982. They released three top 40 hits in Canada between 1983 and 1987, including "Rise Up", "At the Feet of the Moon" and "Love Is Fire" (which featured guest duet vocals from John O ...

)

Chorus members

Chorus members included:

Instrumentation and production

- Keyboards, Producer *

- Drums, Engineer, Associate Producer * Paul Dean (

) - Guitar *Steven Denroche - French Horn *Doug Johnson (

) - Synthesizer *David Sinclair ( Straight Lines / Body Electric) - Acoustic guitar *Hayward Parrott - Engineer *Geoff Turner - Engineer *

(

) - Engineer *

Humberto Gatica Humberto Gatica is a Chilean and American recording engineer, mixing engineer and record producer, best known for his work with Celine Dion, Chicago, Michael Jackson, Barbra Streisand, Andrea Bocelli, Josh Groban, Cher and Michael Bublé. Gatic ...

- Mixing Engineer

Recording process

Bruce Cockburn Bruce Douglas Cockburn ( ; born May 27, 1945) is a Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist. His song styles range from folk to folk- and jazz-influenced rock to soundscapes accompanying spoken stories. His lyrics reflect interests in spirit ...

could not participate in the Toronto recording session, due to performing in Germany at that time. Producer

flew to Germany to record audio and video of Bruce performing his line in the song, which were eventually edited into the song and music video respectively.

later spoke to writer Iain Blair about the recording experience: "I know it sounds ridiculous, but I was literally starving when we did the session 'cause my yoga teacher had sent me to a psychic dietician who, while rubbing her chin and swinging her arm around in a circle, had diagnosed a lot of food allergies. The result was, predictably, that I was hardly allowed to eat anything, so by the time I arrived with an apple and a rice patty, my poor stomach was making all these strange noises. Then we get in the studio, and the engineer says he can't record 'cause he's picking up some weird rumbling sound coming from my direction. (She laughed.) And it was all pretty ironic, considering the subject matter!" At one point during the recording process, Foster also had

re-record his line after singing the word "innocence" flat, to which Young famously quipped, "That's my sound, man."

Artists not appearing

Buffy Sainte-Marie Buffy Sainte-Marie (born Beverley Jean Santamaria; February 20, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter, musician, and social activist. Sainte-Marie's singing and writing repertoire includes subjects of love, war, religion, and mysticism, and h ...

- According to journalist Terry David Mulligan, Sainte-Marie was supposed to be part of the project but did not show up to recording sessions. As a result, the term "Buffy bailed" became an expression in certain Canadian music circles. *

Leonard Cohen Leonard Norman Cohen (September 21, 1934November 7, 2016) was a Canadian songwriter, singer, poet, and novelist. Themes commonly explored throughout his work include faith and mortality, isolation and depression, betrayal and redemption, soc ...

- Because Cohen performed the day before the recording session in

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...

, Denmark, he would have been unable to appear on the recording. *

Rik Emmett Richard Gordon Emmett (born July 10, 1953) is a vocalist, guitarist, and member of the Canadian hard rock band Triumph (band), Triumph. Career In Toronto, during the mid 1970s, several local musicians formed a progressive rock group called Act ...

- The Triumph frontman was on tour in the United States at the time "Tears Are Not Enough" was recorded. Triumph played a show at the Beaumont Civic Center in

Beaumont, Texas Beaumont is a city in the U.S. state of Texas. It is the county seat of Jefferson County, Texas, Jefferson County, within the Beaumont–Port Arthur metropolitan area, located in Southeast Texas on the Neches River about east of Houston (city ...

that day. Emmett says he was invited and would have loved to be part of the recording but scheduling wouldn't allow and recording verses remotely wasn't an option. * Bill Henderson - The

Chilliwack Chilliwack ( ) is a city of about 100,000 people and in the Canadian province of British Columbia. It is located about east of the City of Vancouver in the Fraser Valley. The enumerated population is 93,203 in the city and 113,767 in the gr ...

frontman and guitarist says he was invited to appear, but turned it down because he was only offered a chance to play rhythm guitar, not a solo. *

Randy Bachman Randolph Charles Bachman ( ; born September 27, 1943) is a Canadian guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He was a founding member of the bands The Guess Who and Bachman–Turner Overdrive. He was the writer and singer of several hit rock songs, ...

- On the Toronto Mike'd podcast, Bachman revealed he was never asked to appear on the recording. *

Stompin' Tom Connors Charles Thomas "Stompin' Tom" Connors, Order of Canada, OC (February 9, 1936 – March 6, 2013) was a Canadian country music, country and folk music, folk singer-songwriter. Focusing his career exclusively on his native Canada, he is credited wi ...

- The recording of "Tears Are Not Enough" overlapped with Connors' self-imposed retirement, a move meant to protest the lack of support given to Canadian stories by the policies of the Federal government. Therefore, Connors was unable to attend the sessions.

Video

The song's video opens with footage from Brian Stewart's original CBC News report on the famine, and then cuts to the performers singing the song in a studio. Near the end of the video, footage also appears from the 1985 NHL All-Star Game in

Calgary Calgary () is a major city in the Canadian province of Alberta. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806 making it the third-largest city and fifth-largest metropolitan area in C ...

, depicting the

Campbell Conference Campbell may refer to: People Surname * Campbell (surname), includes a list of people with surname Campbell Given name * Campbell Brown (footballer), an Australian rules footballer * Campbell Brown (journalist) (born 1968), American television n ...

All-Stars and the

Wales Conference Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

All-Stars — including

Wayne Gretzky Wayne Douglas Gretzky ( ; born January 26, 1961) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player and former head coach. He played 20 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) for four teams from 1979 to 1999. Nicknamed "the Great One ...

Grant Fuhr Grant Scott Fuhr (born September 28, 1962) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey goaltender in the National Hockey League (NHL) and former goaltending coach for the Arizona Coyotes, who played for the Edmonton Oilers in the 1980s during wh ...

Jari Kurri Jari Pekka Kurri (; born 18 May 1960) is a Finnish former professional ice hockey player. Beginning in 1980, he played Winger (ice hockey), right wing for five National Hockey League (NHL) teams: the Edmonton Oilers, the Los Angeles Kings, the N ...

and Miroslav Frycer — singing along as the audience waves flags and banners in the air.

2022 live version

A live version of "Tears Are Not Enough" was performed at the

Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame The Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame () is a Canadian non-profit organization, founded in 1998 by Frank Davies, that inducts Canadians into their ''Hall of Fame'' within three different categories: songwriters, songs, and those others who have m ...

gala in

on September 24, 2022. The rendition included many original Northern Lights members including soloists Hart, Hill, and Cockburn plus new Canadian talent such as

Alessia Cara Alessia Caracciolo (born July 11, 1996), known professionally as Alessia Cara (), is a Canadian singer and songwriter. She began posting covers of songs on YouTube at age 13. After uploading acoustic covers of songs such as " Love Yourself" and ...

and Charlotte Cardin.

References

{{reflist

External links

Interview with Songwriter Jim Vallance on "Tears Are Not Enough"

Tears Are Not Enough deep dive on Toronto Mike'd

Vancouver Pop Music / Signature Sounds - "Tears Are Not Enough" by Northern Lights
1985 singles Song recordings produced by David Foster Songs written by David Foster Songs written by Jim Vallance Songs written by Bryan Adams 1985 songs 1980s ballads Aid songs for Africa Anne Murray songs Bryan Adams songs RPM Top Singles number-one singles Pop ballads Gospel songs All-star recordings Charity singles Canadian pop songs Columbia Records singles Songs written by Bob Rock Canadian musical documentary films 1986 films 1980s Canadian films