Songoftheday 3/30/18 - Time can bring you down time can bend your knees, time can break your heart have you begging please...
from the album Rush (Original Soundtrack) (1992)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #2 (four weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 23
Today's song of the day comes from rock god Eric Clapton, who had coasted through much of the 1980s, scored a few hits like the top-40 "Forever Man" in the spring of 1985, as well as some solid albums, like 1986's August and 1989's Journeyman, which both sold decently but didn't land any success on pop radio (the biggest hit from the late 80s, "Pretending", stopped below the halfway mark on the Hot 100). Eric started off the next decade with a series of concerts that would eventually be captured by the live release 24 Nights, with a take on his "Wonderful Tonight" reaching the top-40 in the UK (#30). However, this period was also marked by tragedy - tourmate Stevie Ray Vaughn was killed in a helicopter accident. The following year, his own son Conor passed away after falling out of a skyscraper window in New York. That loss and the feelings of guilt and pain inspired a song he contributed to the movie Rush. "Tears In Heaven", written with Steve Winwood's oft-collaborator Will Jennings, was a simple stunning expression of grief that doesn't even venture into maudlin territory, and remains one of the most real mourning songs that are beautiful and cutting to the heart at the same time.
"Tears In Heaven" climbed all the way to the runner-up spot on the American pop chart in March of 1992, staying there for a month. The song also spent three weeks at #1 on Billboard's Adult Contemporary (or "easy listening") radio chart, and peaked at #9 on their Mainstream Rock format list. Internationally, the record topped the charts in Canada, Ireland, Denmark, New Zealand, and Norway, and reached the top ten in France (#2), Sweden (#4), the UK (#5), Italy (#5), Switzerland (#7), Spain (#7), and Austria (#10). At the Grammy Awards in 1993, "Tears In Heaven" won Song and Record of the Year, along with Best Male Vocal Performance. It was also nominated for best song from a Movie or TV, which "Beauty And The Beast" took home.
A second single from Clapton from the Rush soundtrack, "Help Me Up", missed the pop chart altogether but did a little better on the Mainstream Rock radio chart, peaking at #6.
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Later that year, Eric recorded his MTV Unplugged show/album, and "Tears From Heaven" was an emotional peak of the show...
Next is his tearful performance at the Grammys in 1993...
And again in 1999 live in concert (he had stopped performing it for a while after 2004)...
In 2005, an all-stars cover of the song to benefit victims of the massive tsunami that hit southeast Asia was released...
Also that year, three children recording as the Choirboys reached #22 in the UK with their version...
Back to Eric at the Crossroads festival in 2013...
...and from a show in 2017 in L.A. where he brings a reggae vibe to it...
and finally, Eric playing the song for the first time on TV to a journalist in Britain. I still get choked up on his inflection on "I know I don't belong here in heaven..."
Up tomorrow: Vocal group are reminiscing.
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