Songoftheday 10/24/15 - Cab fare to nowhere is what you are, a white line to an exit sign is what you are...

"Don't Shed A Tear" - Paul Carrack
from the album One Good Reason (1987)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #9 (three weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 13

Today's song of the day comes from British singer/keyboardist Paul Carrack, who by the mid-80s had racked up a handful of memorable hits under different acts, from the 70s power-pop band Ace ("How Long") to a short but sweet stint in English pub-rock darlings Squeeze ("Tempted") to a vocalist for Genesis guitar-man Mike Rutherford's side project Mike + The Mechanics ("Silent Running"). He even landed a moderate pop hit in America in 1982 with his solo single "I Need You". After the top-10 success of "Silent Running", Paul got around to releasing his third album One Good Reason in 1987. Using the same producer (Christopher Neil) as with the Mechanics, Paul's slick new pop/rock sound (think Maroon 5 of the 80s) was debuted with the first single "Don't Shed A Tear". Instead of one of his own songs, "Don't" was farmed out to writers Eddie Schwartz (who had his own top-40 hit with "All Our Tomorrows" in 1982) and Rob Friedman...

"Don't Shed A Tear" became Carrack's first solo top-10 pop hit in America in February of 1988. The single also made it all the way to #5 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock chart and even crossed over to #36 on their Adult Contemporary (or "easy listening") radio list. Internationally, the song went to #20 in the Netherlands and #33 in Australia, but didn't even reach the chart in his native Britain until 1989 and even then sputtered out at #60.

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Here's Carrack performing the song live in New York with Nick Lowe...

Up tomorrow: A 'safe' band has a terrestrial explosion.