Songs Lyrics and YT- Youtube Music Videos

The English Beat - Tears of a Clown

The English Beat - Tears of a Clown Youtube Music Videos and Lyrics

Album: What is Beat?
Released: 1979

Tears of a Clown Lyrics

Say oh yeah baby baby
Now if there's a smile on my face
It's only there tryin' to fool the public
But when it comes down to foolin' you
Well, now honey that's quite a different subject

So don't let my glad expression
Give you the wrong impression
'Cause really I'm sad (so sad sad)
Oh I'm sadder than sad (so sad sad)
Look I'm hurt and I want you so bad (so sad sad)
Like a clown I appear to be glad

Ooh yeah
There's some sad things known to man
But ain't too much sadder than
The Tears of a Clown
When there's no one around

Say oh yeah baby baby baby
Oh yeah baby baby baby

Now if I appear to be carefree
It's only to camouflage my sadness
And honey to shield my pride I try
To cover this hurt with a show of gladness
So don't let my show convince you
That I've been happy since you decided to go
Oh I need you so
Look I'm hurt and I want you to know
Just for others I put on a show

Ooh yeah
There's some sad things known to man
But ain't too much sadder than
The tears of a clown
When there's no one around
So just like Pagliacci did
I'm gonna keep my surface hid
Hiding in my room I try
But in this lonely room I cry
The tears of a clown
When there's no one around

Now if there's a smile on my face
Don't let my glad expression
Give you the wrong impression
Don't let this smile I wear
Make you feel that I don't care
The tears of a clown (tears of a clown)
The tears of a clown (tears of a clown, tears of a clown)
I'm going down de town
I'm going downtown
Tears of a clown

Writer/s: WONDER, STEVIE/ROBINSON, SMOKEY/COSBY, HENRY
Publisher: EMI Music Publishing, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Tears of a Clown

The citizens of Britain are to thank for the success of the song "The Tears of a Clown," which was first recorded by Smokey Robinson & The Miracles in 1967 but not released as a single until 1970, when it was issued in the UK and went to #1. It was subsequently issued in America, topping the chart there a few months later. In 1976, the song was re-released in the UK, this time going to #34. A favorite of The Beat (as they're known in their homeland), the group took the song back to the UK charts with their 1979 cover. This version was released as "Tears of a Clown," omitting the the in the original title.

This was the first single recorded and released by The English Beat, a group that would soon be instrumental in the UK Ska revival movement, borrowing its sounds from early '60s Jamaican music. Dave Wakeling, who was a guitarist and singer in the band, told us how they came to record this song: "When we first started rehearsing the songs, the drummer (Everett Morton) thought our songs were a bit weird. We had rehearsed the songs, and it would go okay for a minute, and then we would all veer off on our own little tangents and we'd lose the groove on it again. And so Everett said, 'Why don't we find a song that we all know and learn that one by ourselves, come back next Tuesday, and we'll play that song and get a groove with that one. And then we'll go back and play one of your weird songs, like that mirror thing.' And so that's what we did, we'd play 'Tears Of A Clown,' then we'd play 'Mirror in the Bathroom,' then we'd play 'Tears Of A Clown.' We'd play 'Twist And Crawl,' and we'd play 'Tears Of A Clown,' 'Big Shot,' 'Tears Of A Clown,' 'Click Click,' 'Tears Of A Clown.' And by the time we got five or six songs together that would hold together, David Steele, the bass player, said, 'Let's do a show. We should do a concert.' We're like, 'We've only got six songs.' He said, 'Yes, but one concert is worth a thousand rehearsals.' Because you can sit around and be pretentious in rehearsals as long as you like. So we started doing shows, and in order to have seven songs instead of six, we put 'Tears Of A Clown' in the set. We'd practiced that song more than any of the others, it turned out. Because it was our magnet, our training model for all the other tunes.

We took all and any sort of gigs, some were punk gigs, some were reggae gigs, some were working men's clubs, some were pubs that were trying to get some business going midweek, we'd take anything. And sometimes the punky songs went well, sometimes the reggae songs went well, and sometimes neither of them would go down well, but everywhere we went, every time, 'Tears Of A Clown' always went down fantastic. So Jerry Dammers came to us, told us about 2-Tone and came and saw the band. He said, 'Would you like to do a single for 2-Tone,' and we said yes, we'd love to, thanks. And he said, 'We really liked that 'Mirror In The Bathroom' song.' And we said, 'That's probably our best song. Yeah, that would be a good one.' Then he came back a week or so later and he said, 'Oh, Chrysalis says you can do 'Mirror In The Bathroom,' they like it, but they would own the rights to it for five years.' We're like, 'No.' I said, 'You know, that's our best tune. We'd want it on our album. But so long as we can bring it out on our album, that would be fine, you can have it as a single.' So he went off again and he came back and he said, 'No, Chrysalis said if it's the single it can't be on your first album.' So we said, 'Well, tell them to f--k themselves.' and we said, 'We'll do 'Tears Of A Clown' then.' Because that always goes down great. And you can tell the fellows at Chrysalis they can argue with Stevie Wonder and Smokey Robinson about whose song it is. And so we just insisted, and as luck would have it, our song came out in October, and by December 6 it was #6 in the charts, and it was the runaway dance party hit of the Christmas of '79. It was on every jukebox and every turntable for every Christmas party. So I think it probably worked out really well, because I don't know if 'Mirror In The Bathroom' would have been that cheery as a Christmas single." (Read the full Dave Wakeling interview.)

The 2-Tone label was started by The Specials, another prominent band in the Ska movement, and Jerry Dammers was The Specials keyboard player. The song was not included on an album until the 1983 greatest hits collection What is Beat?.

In the US, this was never released as a single.

The English Beat - Mirror in the Bathroom

The English Beat - Mirror in the Bathroom Youtube Music Videos and Lyrics

Album: I Just Can't Stop It
Released: 1980

Mirror in the Bathroom Lyrics

Mirror in the Bathroom
Please talk free
The door is locked
Just you and me
Can I take you to a restaurant
That's got glass tables
You can watch yourself
While you are eating

Mirror in the bathroom
I just can't stop it
Every Saturday you see me
Window shopping
Find no interest in the
Racks and shelves
Just a thousand reflections
Of my own sweet self, self, self

Mirror in the bathroom
You're my mirror in the bathroom
You're my mirror in the bathroom
You're my mirror in the bathroom

Mirror in the bathroom
Recompense
For all my crimes
Of self defense
Cures you wiser
Make no sense
Drift gently into
Mental illness

Mirror in the bathroom
Please talk free
The door is locked
Just you and me
Can I take you to a restaurant
That's got glass tables
You can watch yourself
While you are eating

Mirror in the bathroom
Mirror in the bathroom
Mirror in the bathroom
Mirror in the bathroom
Mirror in the bathroom
Mirror in the bathroom

Writer/s: Cox, Andrew / Charlery, Roger / Morton, Everett / Steele, David / Wakeling, David Frederick
Publisher: Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Warner/Chappell Music, Inc.
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Mirror in the Bathroom

This was written by The English Beat singer and guitarist Dave Wakeling. He told us the story of the song: "I was working in construction at the time, and it was the winter. I had forgotten to hang my jeans up to dry overnight, so when I got into the bathroom to shower up, I noticed my jeans were still on the floor, soaking wet, covered in sand. So I hung them up thinking well, it's probably best to have them steaming hot and wet. I went to shave, and it was snowing, and I really, really didn't want to go. So I started talking to myself in the mirror as I was shaving up. And it was weird, because I looked deeper in the mirror, and I could see the little caption on the door behind, and I said to myself, Look, David, there's just me and you in here. The door's locked. We don't have to go to work. Of course we did. Got on the motorbike, and I just started pondering as I skated my way to the construction site on this motorbike. And that's how it started. It was thinking about how self-involvement turns into narcissism and how narcissism turns into isolation, and then how isolation turns into self-involvement again, and how what a vicious cycle that can become. So then I just started thinking about different situations where people would ostensibly look like they were doing something, but in fact they were checking their own reflection out. And you'd see it perhaps on Saturday afternoon with people window shopping, half the time they're actually just looking at their own reflection. Then this restaurant opened, and it was a big deal at the time because it had glass tables, and I was like, oh, you can watch yourself."

This song is often misinterpreted to be about cocaine, which is often consumed on mirrors brought into bathrooms. The song actually has nothing to do with drugs, as Wakeling explains: "In America in the early '80s, everybody gave me knowing winks and said, 'Oh, I know what that one's about, then, Dave.' And it wasn't that mirror in the bathroom at all, it was the one on the wall, and not the one on your knee. And oddly, songs can become sort of strangely prophetic, though. But certainly at the time of writing, nobody had any money or any access to cocaine... until after the song was out."

Unlike artists like Bruce Springsteen who never had a job that wasn't related to music, Wakeling did lots of real work before becoming a full time musician. He liked working construction because it was a "neck-down" job, enabling him to devote his mind to concerns like songwriting.

The same mirror played a part in another track on I Just Can't Stop It. Says Wakeling: "In the song 'Best Friend,' I'm actually singing it to myself in the same mirror that 'Mirror In The Bathroom' was written in. It was actually my sister's bathroom in Birmingham. But I kept that mirror for a long time, eventually lost it."

The English Beat's record label wanted to release this as their first single - and keep the publishing rights for 5 years. Not a good arrangement for the band, as Wakeling explains: "We said, 'We'll do 'Tears Of A Clown' then.' Because that always goes down great. And you can tell the fellows at Chrysalis they can argue with Stevie Wonder and Smokey Robinson about whose song it is. And so we just insisted, and as luck would have it, our song came out in October, and by December 6 it was #6 in the charts, and it was the runaway dance party hit of the Christmas of '79. It was on every jukebox and every turntable for every Christmas party. So I think it probably worked out really well, because I don't know if 'Mirror In The Bathroom' would have been that cheery as a Christmas single. A British song about isolation and narcissism that will morph into a song about cocaine in the bathroom, you know?" (Read the full Dave Wakeling interview.)

This was one of the first big singles of the early '80s UK Ska revival. This genré borrowed heavily from the Reggae rhythms of Jamaica. The premier band in the movement was The Specials, and this song lifted The English Beat to that same level.

This sounds nothing like the group's later MTV hits in the US. The raw Ska influence of the band is much more evident here than on their later singles.

This was the first digitally-recorded single released in the UK. (thanks, Derek - Manchester, England)