Topic summary
Tears Are Not Enough
"Tears Are Not Enough" is a 1985 charity single recorded by a supergroup of Canadian 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 charity singles of that time frame such as "Do They Know It's Christmas?", "We Are the World", "Cantaré, cantarás" , "Éthiopie" and "Les Yeux de la faim".
Although recorded independently of the USA for Africa project, it was included on the full-length We Are the World album.
The project was organized by Bruce Allen, who brought together a large group of artists to record a song written by David Foster, Jim Vallance, Bryan Adams, Rachel Paiement, Paul Hyde and Bob Rock. Foster and Vallance wrote the music and initial lyrics, Adams completed the English-language lyrics, Paiement wrote the one French-language verse, Rock & Hyde contributed the song title. The song was recorded on February 10, 1985, at Manta Sound studios in Toronto.
Foster revealed the melody of the song was originally offered to filmmaker Joel Schumacher as incidental music for his film St. Elmo's Fire. Schumacher reportedly 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 on May 1, 1985, and quickly reached number one on Canada's RPM and The Record singles charts. It finished at number 15 on the year-end RPM chart for that year. The song's video also received extensive airplay on MuchMusic.
The vocals were recorded at Manta Sound Studios in downtown Toronto on Sunday, February 10, 1985. Gordon Lightfoot drove himself to the recording in a pick-up truck. Neil Young and Joni Mitchell 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 performance in Philadelphia.
On December 22, 1985, CBC Television 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 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 banks.