"Tears" ("Tears for Souvenirs") is a song written by lyricist Frank Capano and composer Billy Uhr, and was first recorded by Rudy Vallee in 1929. It was made famous by Ken Dodd as a single, released in 1965. It became a #1 hit in the UK Singles Chart and the biggest selling single of 1965. The song also hit number one in Ireland.
Although best known as a comedian, Ken Dodd was a prolific recording artist throughout the 1960s. His debut single, "Love is like a Violin" reached #8 in 1960. There were 9 more singles, none of which made the top 20, between then and "Tears".
The single spent 24 weeks in total on the chart, with 5 at number 1. It sold over a million copies in the UK, becoming the biggest-selling single of 1965, and was the third biggest-selling single of the 1960s. In 2002 it was listed as the UK's 19th best-selling single of all time, with sales of 1,521,000.
Famous quotes containing the words dodd and/or tears:
“The trouble with Freud is that he never played the Glasgow Empire Saturday night.”
—Ken Dodd (b. 1931)
“For four hundred years the blacks of Haiti had yearned for peace. for three hundred years the island was spoken of as a paradise of riches and pleasures, but that was in reference to the whites to whom the spirit of the land gave welcome. Haiti has meant split blood and tears for blacks.”
—Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960)