"Nothing but a Heartache" is a Pop and Northern Soul hit originally released on the

Deram Records Deram Records was a subsidiary record label of Decca Records established in the United Kingdom in 1966. At the time, U.K. Decca was a different company from the Decca label in the United States, which was owned by MCA Inc. Deram recordings w ...

label in November 1968 by South Carolina trio The Flirtations. The song was produced by

Wayne Bickerton Wayne Bickerton (born Arthur Ronald Bickerton; 11 July 1941 – 29 November 2015) was a British record producer, songwriter and music business executive. He became well known, with Tony Waddington, as writer and producer of a series of UK chart ...

and co-written by Bickerton and

Tony Waddington Anthony Waddington (9 November 1924 – 21 January 1994) was an English football manager at both Crewe Alexandra and Stoke City. Waddington had a seven-year playing career with Crewe Alexandra before becoming a coach at Stoke City. He progress ...

, who were later responsible for the 1970s successes of

The Rubettes The Rubettes are an English pop/glam rock band put together in 1974 after the release of "Sugar Baby Love", a recording assembled of studio session musicians in 1973 by the songwriting team of Wayne Bickerton, the then head of A&R at Polydor R ...

Commercial performance

"Nothing But a Heartache" reached the

Top 40 In the music industry, the Top 40 is the current, 40 most-popular songs in a particular genre. It is the best-selling or most frequently broadcast popular music. Record charts have traditionally consisted of a total of 40 songs. "Top 40" or " con ...

in both the Netherlands (No. 33) and in the US, where it spent two weeks at No. 34 in late May 1969 during what was then considered a lengthy 14-week run on ''Billboards Hot 100 – especially for a hit that did not reach the top 30.”Billboard Hot 100 Charts – The Sixties”, Record Research Inc, 1990 The single did, however, reach No. 31 on ''

Cash Box ''Cashbox'', also known as ''Cash Box'', was an American music industry trade magazine, originally published weekly from July 1942 to November 1996. Ten years after its dissolution, it was revived and continues as ''Cashbox Magazine'', an online ...

'' and No. 25 on ''

Record World ''Record World'' magazine was one of the three main music industry trade magazines in the United States, along with '' Billboard'' and '' Cashbox''. It was founded in 1946 under the name ''Music Vendor'', but in 1964 it was changed to ''Record Wo ...

''. In late April 1969, "Nothing but a Heartache" reached No. 3 in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

on WRKO-AM. In Canada it reached No. 31 and in Australia it charted at No. 97. Two promotional videos—one in color and one in black-and-white—were filmed for the song. The colour video was shot at

Tintern Abbey Tintern Abbey ( cy, Abaty Tyndyrn ) was founded on 9 May 1131 by Walter de Clare, Lord of Chepstow. It is situated adjacent to the village of Tintern in Monmouthshire, on the Welsh bank of the River Wye, which at this location forms the bor ...

in Wales.

Charts

Covers

*In October 2017, American punk rock/hip hop band the

Transplants Transplant or Transplantation may refer to: Sciences *Transplanting a plant from one location to another *Organ transplantation, moving an organ from one body to another *Transplant thought experiment, an experiment similar to Trolley problem *Tra ...

recorded it for their ''Take Cover'' EP.

References

External links

* 1968 singles Songs written by Wayne Bickerton Deram Records singles 1968 songs Songs written by Tony Waddington (songwriter) Northern soul songs {{1960s-single-stub