Tears from Heaven [7-inch single]

Description

Tears from Heaven – b/w “The Only One” – is a two-sided 7-inch vinyl single by the British dance/pop group Heartbeat, released in the UK on the British dance label Priority Records in 1987, distributed by RCA/Ariola Ltd. The single was engineered by Dave Anderson with Joe Arthur producing. Both tracks were taken from the band’s up-coming full-length album The Winner released in the UK on both Priority Records and Myrrh Records in 1988, and in the US on DaySpring International the following year.

An extended version of “Tears from Heaven” was released as a 12-inch maxi-single, featuring “The Only One” and “Dancing” on the flip-side.

The release of the «Tears From Heaven» single was put together in a deal, typical in its wheels-within-wheels record biz complexity. Word Records MD Ian Hamilton introduced the band to Stuart Ongley, who ran music publishing company, Peer-Southern Music, and Barry Evans, who had had both a promotion company, Bullet plus his own record label, Priority Records. Joe Arthur produced the single and, on its release in 1987, it began to climb the charts. For one exhilarating moment it looked like it was going to go all the way, but, despite an appearance on Top Of The Pops, it peaked at 32 and failed to become the substantial hit hoped for. What wrapped «Tears From Heaven»’s chart place forever in controversy was the accusation of ‘hype’ muttered by many and articulated in print in ‘Strait’, the Greenbelt magazine. The basis of the accusation was a gushing exhortation in the Heartbeat newsletter, which was by then being circulated to tens of thousands of evangelicals, to buy the record. Some even took Ray Goudie’s advice and prayed and fasted for the success of the single. Ray is adamant, however, that hype was the wrong word. “We talked to secular record companies and said ‘Do you think what we’re doing’s wrong?’ And they said ‘You’re not doing anything that we don’t do.’ So they said ‘Hype is if you instruct someone to go in and buy 50 or 100 copies of a single in a chart shop. What you’re doing is instructing what we would call your fan club to go and buy your single.’

[Excerpt from the article “Heartbeat: Charting the history of Britain’s pop-evangelists-cum-praise-band”, written by Tony Cummings and published in Cross Rhythms Magazine #7, August 1991]

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7-inch Vinyl Single tracklist:

Side A. “Tears from Heaven”
Side B. “The Only One”

Note: Priority Records also released an Extended Version of “Tears from Heaven” as a 12-inch maxi-single featuring “The Only One” and “Dancing” on the flip-side of the single.

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“Tears From Heaven”, recorded for BBC’s Top Of The Pops in 1987.