"Teardrops" is a song on Womack & Womack's fourth studio album, Conscience. The songwriters were listed as Womack & Womack, who also served as the producers of the track alongside Chris Blackwell. Released as the album's lead single during the third quarter of 1988, it charted highly around the world, reaching number-one in the Netherlands and number 2 in Australia, Germany and Switzerland, and number 3 in the UK. In 1993, Elton John and k.d. lang covered "Teardrops" for John's album Duets. In 1998, British group Lovestation covered the song, and later, Germanpop band No Angels and Australian singer Kate Alexa released their own cover versions as singles in 2007 and 2008, respectively. In 2002, Lulu and Elton John covered the song for Lulu's album Together. In 2009, the Sugababes re-recorded the track for the 50 Years of Island Records compilation. It has also been covered by The xx in 2009, on a bonus disc with their debut album xx, as well as by British singer Joss Stone who included the track on her 2012 album The Soul Sessions Vol. 2. In 2011, the song was covered by Cliff Richard and Candi Staton for Richard's Soulicious album and by Roosevelt in 2016.
In 1998, British group Lovestation released a version of "Teardrops" as both a CD single and 12" vinyl record. "Teardrops" became the group's biggest hit, reaching No. 14 in the UK. In 2000, the group released another version of the 1998 cover, but it did not achieve the same degree of success in the British charts, peaking at No. 24. The 2000 release consisted of several remixes by producers such as Joey Negro, Eric Kupper and Jamie White. Mixmag included "Teardrops" in their list of "40 of the best UK garage tracks released from 1995 to 2005".
In early June 2007, German pop quartet No Angels re-recorded the song for the second half of the third single from their fourth studio album, Destiny. Co-produced by Tobias Gustafsson, Vincent Pontare, and Michel Zitron, "Teardrops" was released alongside "Amaze Me" on 19 October 2007. The song was previewed on RTL's news programme Punkt 6 on 22 August 2007, and by 27 August 2007, a thirty-seconds clip of the song had leaked onto the internet – the same week "Teardrops" was serviced to radio stations. The quartet premiered the single on the television live show ZDF Fernsehgarten on 9 September 2007.
Music video
The music video for "Teardrops" was directed by Marcus Sternberg and shot in a filming studio between 20–22 August 2007 in Berlin, Germany. Shot over twenty hours back-to-back with the video for "Amaze Me", the edited clip premiered on 29 September 2007 on the Universal Music Group website. The clip received its first official airing in the week of 29 September 2007, on German music network iMusic1. The group has declared the filming of the "mammoth shoot" as "extremely exhausting", referring to its extraordinary length and a delay of several hours, caused by various technical defects. Lucy Diakovska has described the plotless clip as a "funky disco-dance-energy-video", reflecting another facet of the band in music and style. Inspired by a concept developed by all four members and based on Sternberg's treatment, the music video was eventually conceived as a stylistic counterpart to "Amaze Me".
Formats and track listings
CD single
"Amaze Me" – 3:48
"Teardrops" – 3:13
"Teardrops" – 3:45
"Teardrops" – 3:44
"Teardrops" – 5:26
"Teardrops"
CD single
"Amaze Me" – 3:47
"Teardrops" – 3:13
"Ain't Gonna Look the Other Way" – 3:50
"Amaze Me" – 3:47
"Amaze Me" – 3:47
"Amaze Me"
Kate Alexa version
In early 2008, Australian singer Kate Alexa covered the song for her second studio album. It was produced by Molly Meldrum and features AmericanrapperBaby Bash. It was released as the album's first single in Australia on 3 March 2008 as a CD single and digital download. Alexa has stated that she has always been a massive fan of the song, which was originally released the same year she was born. The song was released to Australian radio on 1 February 2008, and peaked at number sixty-four on the airplay chart. The song's producer, Molly Meldrum, suggested that Alexa should cover the song. Alexa states "I was looking to do a single between albums, and Molly came up with the idea of doing "Teardrops". At first, I was a little sceptical because the original is such a classic and I love it so much. But then Molly and I spoke about how we could do it." American rapper, Baby Bash, heard what Alexa was doing with the song through a friend of Alexa's manager and decided to take part in the song. Alexa states "He's a very cool guy. He came in and did the rap in one take, and it fitted perfectly. It’s got such an incredible feel and groove and we wanted to keep that vibe. But we also wanted to do something different, and the rap takes the track to a whole new place." The song debuted on the Australian ARIA Singles Chart in early March 2008 at number twenty-eight. It went to peak at number twenty-six the following week. It also charted at number seven on the Physical Singles chart and number eight on the Australian Artists Chart. "Teardrops" spent six weeks on the chart, five of which were in the top fifty. The music video for the song was filmed on 14 January 2008, at the Love Machine in South Yarra, Victoria, Australia.
Track listing
CD single and digital download
"Teardrops" – 3:17
"Teardrops" – 4:16
"It's Alright" – 3:35
"It's Alright" – 3:36
Charts
Sugababes version
On 1 June 2009, English girl group Sugababes' record label Island Records released the album Island Life – 50 Years of Island Records for which the Sugababes covered the track "Teardrops". The song debuted on the Romanian Top 100 at number 63 and charted 3 weeks later at number 40.
