"There'll Be Sad Songs (To Make You Cry)" is a song by Trinidadian-English singer

Billy Ocean Leslie Sebastian Charles (born 21 January 1950), known professionally as Billy Ocean, is a Trinidadian-born British singer and songwriter. Between 1976 and 1988, he had a series of hit songs in the UK and internationally. After releasing sev ...

from his sixth studio album, '' Love Zone'' (1986). The song was written and produced by Wayne Brathwaite and Barry Eastmond; Ocean was also credited as a co-writer for the song. The song reached number one on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 for the week beginning 5 July 1986, where it remained for one week, becoming the 600th different song to ascend to that position. It also topped the

adult contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the 1980s to the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul ...

and R&B charts in the United States that same summer.

Background

According to

Barry Eastmond Barry James Eastmond (born January 11, 1959) is an American musician, composer, songwriter, and record producer. Eastmond is an adjunct professor at New York University Steinhardt Performing Arts Department in songwriting and is part of the NYU ...

, the song was inspired by an incident involving Ocean's single of the previous year, " Suddenly". Eastmond told

Fred Bronson Fredric M. "Fred" Bronson (born January 10, 1949) is an American journalist, author and writer. He is the author of books related to number one songs on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart and other books related to various music charts as well. He ...

in ''The Billboard Book of Number One Hits'' about a friend of his wife's who had recently broken up with a long-term boyfriend. While at a party thrown by her new boyfriend, the song "Suddenly", which reminded her of her previous boyfriend, was played, and she broke down in tears. Eastmond and his co-writers used this scenario as the basis for writing "There'll Be Sad Songs (To Make You Cry)".

Music video

Towards the end of the music video for "There'll Be Sad Songs (To Make You Cry)", Ocean stands seeing a woman coming towards him and as he gets ready to hug her, but she walks past him, to his devastation. An alternative video consists of Ocean performing the song live at one of his concerts in 1986.

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

References

1980s ballads 1986 singles 1986 songs Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles Billy Ocean songs Cashbox number-one singles Contemporary R&B ballads Jive Records singles RPM Top Singles number-one singles Soul ballads Songs about music Songs written by Barry Eastmond Songs written by Billy Ocean Songs written by Wayne Brathwaite {{1980s-single-stub