Tears Pouring All Down My Face...

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First the facts.

Title : Nothing But A Heartache
Artist : The Flirtations (Shirley and Ernestine Pearce from South Carolina, Viola Billups from Alabama)
Label : Deram DM 216
Year : 1969
Recorded : London
Producers and Writers Wayne Bickerton and Tony Waddington (ex Pete Best Combo, later The Rubettes)

Stop. Collect yourself. Play it again. So where's the flaw - it can't BE this good. Nothing can be this good. This record is every drug you've ever taken, every girl you've ever loved, like the dream you've tried to will into reality every single night of your stupid fucking life. No, better than that.

GET THIS RECORD. DOWNLOAD IT IF YOU CAN. BUY THE DERAM CD 'THE NORTHERN SOUL SCENE' AS I DID. NOW!

I first heard it at around 3.00 pm yesterday on the headphones in Borders. I first heard it all the way through at 4.15, and I've played it continuously ever since.

One more time. A staccato brass and piano intro is pushed aside by the deepest, steadiest bass and drum groove imaginable. Something like those 'dragging chain' Martha And The Vandellas rhythm grooves, but a million times more thunderous. Vocals come quickly, with proto-philly strings - "Nothin' but a heartache every day/nothin' but a teardrop all of the way" - the lead vocal strident, angry, wronged, then straining, vulnerable on "He's got me/oh why can't I get him". What happens next is, MUST BE, the greatest moment I've heard on record. The beat doubles, then marches on the spot, the brass looming overhead. Shirley, Ernestine and Viola's anger wells up, BOILS up -"Heartaches/ Teardrops/ All of the way!" and releases with a semi-screamed "Nothin' but a heartache EV-ERY DAY!" . And round again for another relentlessly intense verse (same as the first) and more heartache, teardrops...

On the outro - Shirley or Ernestine or Viola breaks free for a few seconds to testify to"tears pouring all down my face". You should know they're pouring down mine too.

Dr. C (Dr. C), Monday, 3 March 2003 17:46 (twenty-two years ago)

b-but is it MELODIC??

jess (dubplatestyle), Monday, 3 March 2003 17:49 (twenty-two years ago)

A brilliant post, but I was saying the words to the thread title in the same pacing and tone as Jethro Tull going, "Snot is running down his nose!"

Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 3 March 2003 17:50 (twenty-two years ago)

dr. c can you soulseek this bad boy pls?

mark p (Mark P), Monday, 3 March 2003 18:17 (twenty-two years ago)

Art Bell used to play this great song every night.

dan (dan), Monday, 3 March 2003 18:30 (twenty-two years ago)

the whole flirtations album this is from (with the same title) is
fantastic - the same commitment to putting an electric charge on every single line, plus the all-around lovely arrangements. but yeah this song is unstoppable,

dave k, Monday, 3 March 2003 20:39 (twenty-two years ago)

dr c is otm
the best song ever

Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Monday, 3 March 2003 20:51 (twenty-two years ago)

Terrific terrific song. First heard it on the Art Bell show awhile back and tracked it down. "Nothing But A Heartache" is the killer song on there, but as Dave K said the whole album is just fantastic - also check out "How Can You Tell Me".

Chris Barrus (xibalba), Monday, 3 March 2003 21:04 (twenty-two years ago)

it's arranged by the great Johnny Harris:
http://bongolia.org/music/johnny_harris.php (my incomplete discography)

michael (michael), Tuesday, 4 March 2003 09:57 (twenty-two years ago)

this is a wonderful record. been a favourite of mine since I was wee. I heard it at ATP a couple of years ago and nearly cried

j0e (j0e), Tuesday, 4 March 2003 10:59 (twenty-two years ago)

I can't work out how I missed this track in the 70's at Northern Soul events.

Dr. C (Dr. C), Tuesday, 4 March 2003 14:50 (twenty-two years ago)

not obscure enough for snobby djs? ;) (major label, uk release, etc)

michael (michael), Tuesday, 4 March 2003 14:58 (twenty-two years ago)

four months pass...
dr c u are so right. absolutely fantastic.
not obscure enough ? never heard it before.
but then i was ne'er auld enough to go to
the spinning wheel or whatever it was called.

piscesboy, Tuesday, 29 July 2003 16:15 (twenty-one years ago)

This song is indeed fantastic, and caused me to dig out the compy Dr.C put it on, which is amazingly as good if not better. Sir, my hat's off to you!

Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Tuesday, 29 July 2003 16:29 (twenty-one years ago)

five months pass...
i still listen to this weekly

mark p (Mark P), Thursday, 15 January 2004 18:53 (twenty-one years ago)

Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. My dad works fixing pipes and installing beer in pubs around Liverpool and in one of these pubs he salvaged a box of seven inches they were going to chuck out. In the box was this, My Babe by Little Walter, a bit of Elvis and a bunch of other things. Classic.

Jim Robinson (Original Miscreant), Thursday, 15 January 2004 20:48 (twenty-one years ago)

I like how the lead singer's just a LITTLE off -- she doesn't nail the big notes perfectly and her voice is just a bit too thin for the song. It's this near-airtight pop-soul powerhouse with a layer of vulnerability where you least expect it.

america's first municipal lunatic asylum (Jody Beth Rosen), Thursday, 15 January 2004 20:54 (twenty-one years ago)

two months pass...
it's on the new KFC advert!

pete b. (pete b.), Friday, 19 March 2004 10:17 (twenty-one years ago)

two years pass...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39SjyMvBbk4&mode=related&search=

This video has been posted on another thread, but it NEEDS to be on this one.

Griff Sheridan (Griff Sheridan), Monday, 9 October 2006 19:44 (eighteen years ago)

Song's in my top 100 of all time. It makes me want to dance like Byron Gilliam on Laugh-In (I searched for visuals, to no avail).

Joseph McCombs (Joseph McCombs), Monday, 9 October 2006 20:11 (eighteen years ago)

omg that video was filmed at Coventry Cathedral WTF!! insane camera movement too...

Konal Doddz (blueski), Monday, 9 October 2006 22:33 (eighteen years ago)

Definitely one of my all-time faves.

Michael F Gill (Michael F Gill), Tuesday, 10 October 2006 00:38 (eighteen years ago)

WTF & WOW

jed_ (jed), Tuesday, 10 October 2006 00:49 (eighteen years ago)

phwoar

ram jam holder (Jody Beth Rosen), Tuesday, 10 October 2006 02:28 (eighteen years ago)

it's good -- I love every part of this song that is not her singing "nothing but a heartache every day", which doesn't count as the chorus which makes me like it a bit more. flirtations album must be a pip, still haven't heard it.

tremendoid (tremendoid), Tuesday, 10 October 2006 03:06 (eighteen years ago)

Wow, just heard it for the first time. Now on my third. Utterly fantastic.

Harpal (harpal), Tuesday, 10 October 2006 04:15 (eighteen years ago)

search: "how can you tell me" and "need your lovin'"

ram jam holder (Jody Beth Rosen), Tuesday, 10 October 2006 04:44 (eighteen years ago)

holy fuck that video is awesome

joseph (joseph), Tuesday, 10 October 2006 04:51 (eighteen years ago)

a sheer waste of three minutes of my life.

corey c (shock of daylight), Tuesday, 10 October 2006 05:22 (eighteen years ago)

and the song's only 2:30!

ram jam holder (Jody Beth Rosen), Tuesday, 10 October 2006 05:30 (eighteen years ago)

I was a little dissapointed.

There's something fucked up about that song's structure. There is a verse where the chorus should be and a chorus where the verse should be.

And no it isn't very melodic. But it definitely has a very danceable groove. It's easy for me to imagine it being used in a commercial, especially since it gets old after the first 30 seconds. Just the same damn thing over and over, it felt like.

Rat Nasty (ratnasty), Tuesday, 10 October 2006 05:57 (eighteen years ago)

gets better each time you hear it

timmy tannin (pompous), Tuesday, 10 October 2006 07:17 (eighteen years ago)

A great single - Bickerton and Waddington pre-Rubettes, production deliberately mixed up to be extra-loud, fantastic sense of tension and release ("Heart-ACHES! Tear-DROPS!"). Oh, and a number one cover version waiting to happen for anyone who wants it (Frank?).

Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Tuesday, 10 October 2006 08:03 (eighteen years ago)

i thought this was going to be by that other band called the flirtations.

wogan lenin (dog latin), Tuesday, 10 October 2006 11:00 (eighteen years ago)

That is absolultely fantastic!

Pashmina (Pashmina), Tuesday, 10 October 2006 11:12 (eighteen years ago)

The Now Time Delegation - featuring Lisa Kekaula of the Bellrays and Tim Kerr - did a great cover of this for their album Watch For Today

i am not a nugget (stevie), Tuesday, 10 October 2006 15:12 (eighteen years ago)

one year passes...

I'VE GOT A LOT OF THOSE HEARTACHES
I'VE GOT A LOT OF THOSE TEARDROPS

G00blar, Saturday, 3 November 2007 17:52 (seventeen years ago)

I love how this thread randomly revives.

Elvis Telecom, Saturday, 3 November 2007 18:02 (seventeen years ago)

three months pass...

Yep.

Cunga, Sunday, 3 February 2008 20:36 (seventeen years ago)

Yes.

Bimble, Saturday, 9 February 2008 09:46 (seventeen years ago)

three months pass...

heard this on a LA oldies station today which was a nice surprise, but also weird, this was a pretty minor hit stateside, oldies stations usually stick to top 10, occasionally dipping a little lower.

gershy, Saturday, 17 May 2008 06:01 (seventeen years ago)

seven years pass...

Stop. Collect yourself. Play it again. So where's the flaw - it can't BE this good. Nothing can be this good. This record is every drug you've ever taken, every girl you've ever loved, like the dream you've tried to will into reality every single night of your stupid fucking life. No, better than that.

Love, Wilco (C. Grisso/McCain), Tuesday, 8 September 2015 03:55 (nine years ago)

word

the late great, Tuesday, 8 September 2015 06:08 (nine years ago)

two months pass...

my uncle's uncle Wayne Bickerton who co-wrote this, passed away this weekend poor chap. he and his friend from childhood Tony Waddington also wrote and produced nine Top 50 hits for The Rubettes and won an Ivor Novello Award as Songwriters of the Year.

piscesx, Monday, 30 November 2015 15:06 (nine years ago)

four years pass...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_KHCI_UgqQ

"...And the Gods Socially Distanced" (C. Grisso/McCain), Wednesday, 10 June 2020 22:04 (five years ago)

This song is basically all chorus... makes you wonder why songwriters don't use that trick more often.

enochroot, Thursday, 11 June 2020 00:49 (five years ago)

This thread rules. I know this from "One Kiss Can Lead To Another" - pulling out the ol hat box next chance I get. (That whole first disc......dear god)

maf you one two (maffew12), Thursday, 11 June 2020 01:26 (five years ago)


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