David Foster got a call in February of 1985 from his friend and mentor, Quincy Jones. Jones had just completed recording “We Are The World” for famine relief in Ethiopia. He asked Foster to quickly prepare an all-Canadian song to be included on the same project. Foster was working at the time with The Payolas. Bob Rock and Paul Hyde of the group provided him with the title, “Tears Are Not Enough.” Foster eventually wrote the music, a sweet ballad in his typical style. He got in touch with Jim Vallance to work on the arrangement and moving lyrics plus recruited Bryan Adams and Vallance’s wife, Rachel Paiement, to add their ideas to the lyrics. On February 10, after recording the basic track, the all-star recording took place in Toronto. The most important names in Canadian music and showbiz showed up for the milestone event. Neil Young, Brian Adams, Joni Mitchell, Gordon Lightfoot, Anne Murray, Oscar Peterson, Catherine O’Hara, Paul Shaffer, John Candy, Corey Hart, Geddy Lee of Rush, Burton Cummings of The Guess Who, Mike Reno of Loverboy and many, many others lent their voices under Foster’s expert guidance to help the cause. The result was a beautiful and poignant composition that went straight to #1 on the Canadian chart and remained there for four weeks. “Tears Are Not Enough” was also included on the “We Are The World” album, raising more than $3.2 million for the African cause.

Listen

[audio:https://www.fozfan.com/archives/clips/tears_are_not_enough.mp3|titles=Tears are not enough|artists=]

Vocals: Northern Lights (Bryan Adams, John Candy, Bruce Cockburn, Burton Cummings, Dalbello, Corey Hart, Ronnie Hawkins, Dan Hill, Paul Hyde, Marc Jordan, Geddy Lee, Gordon Lightfoot, Richard Manuel, Joni Mitchell, Anne Murray, Oscar Peterson, Mike Reno, Paul Shaffer, Jane Siberry, Neil Young, etc.)
Keyboards: David Foster
Drums: Jim Vallance
Guitar: Paul Dean
Acoustic Guitar: David Sinclair
French Horn: Steven Denroche
Synthesizer: Doug Johnson
Produced by David Foster
Associate Producer: Jim Vallance

Lyrics

As every day goes by, how can we close our eyes
Until we open up our hearts
We can learn to share and show how much we care
Right from the moment that we start

It seems like overnight we see a world in a different light
Somehow our innocence is lost
How can we look away ’cause every single day
We’ve got to help at any cost

We can bridge the distance
Only we can make the difference
Don’t you know that
Tears are not enough

If we can pull together
We can change the world forever
Heaven knows that tears are not enough

It’s up to me and you
To make the dream come true
It’s time to take our message everywhere

C’est l’amour qui nous rassemble
D’ici a l’autre bout du monde
Let’s show them Canada still cares
Oh, you know that we’ll be there

We can bridge the distance
Only we can make the difference
Don’t you know that
Tears are not enough

If we can pull together
We can change the world forever
Heaven knows that tears are not enough

And if we should try together, you and I
Maybe we could understand the reasons why

If we take a stand,
Every woman, child, and man
We could make it work
For God’s sake, lend a hand

We can bridge the distance
Only we can make the difference
Don’t you know that
Tears are not enough

If we can pull together
We can change the world forever
Heaven knows that tears are not enough