"Tears Are Not Enough" is a 1985 charity single recorded by a supergroup of Canadian artists, under the name Northern Lights, to raise funds for relief of the 1983–85 famine in Ethiopia. It was one of a number of such supergroup singles recorded between December 1984 and April 1985, along with Band Aid's "Do They Know It's Christmas?" in the United Kingdom, USA for Africa's "We Are the World" in the United States, "Cantaré, cantarás" by a supergroup of Latin American and Spanish singers, Chanteurs sans Frontières's "Éthiopie" in France, and Fondation Québec-Afrique's "Les Yeux de la faim" in Quebec. Although recorded independently of the USA for Africa project, it was included on the full-length We Are the World album. The project was organized by Bruce Allen, who brought together a large group of artists to record a song written by David Foster, Jim Vallance, Bryan Adams, Rachel Paiement, Paul Hyde and Bob Rock. Foster and Vallance wrote the music and initial lyrics, Adams completed the English lyrics, Paiement wrote the one French verse, Rock & Hyde contributed the song title. The song was recorded on February 10, 1985 at Manta Sound studios in Toronto. Foster revealed the melody of the song was originally offered to filmmaker Joel Schumacher as incidental music for his film St. Elmo's Fire (film). Schumacher reported hated it but was later, in Foster's words, "really pissed" when it showed up later as a charity single. The song was issued as the album's second and final single by Columbia Records on May 1, 1985, and quickly reached number one on the Canadian Top 40 chart. It also finished number one on the year-end Canadian charts for that year. The song's video also received extensive airplay on MuchMusic. The vocals were recorded at Manta Sound Studios in downtown Toronto on Sunday, February 10, 1985. Gordon Lightfoot drove himself to the recording in a pick-up truck. Neil Young and Joni Mitchell arrived together in a taxi. Mark Holmes of Platinum Blonde arrived in a white stretch limousine. Bryan Adams performed a live version of "Tears Are Not Enough" on July 13, 1985 during his Live Aid performance in Philadelphia. On December 22, 1985, CBC Television aired a 90-minute documentary by John Zaritsky on the song and its creation. A CBC reporter, Brian Stewart, had been the first Western journalist to bring the famine in Ethiopia to worldwide attention. The film was a Genie Award nominee for Best Documentary Film at the 7th Genie Awards in 1986. By 1990, the project had raised $3.2 million for famine relief projects in Africa. Ten percent of the funds raised was set aside to assist Canadian food banks.

Performers

Solo vocalists (in order)

• Gordon Lightfoot • Burton Cummings • Anne Murray • Joni Mitchell • Dan Hill • Neil Young • Bryan Adams • Corey Hart • Bruce Cockburn • Geddy Lee (Rush) • Mike Reno (Loverboy)

Heard in duos or trios

Chorus members

Chorus members included: • Liona Boyd • John Candy • Tom Cochrane (Red Rider) • Tommy Hunter • Martha Johnson • Eugene Levy • Dean McTaggart (The Arrows) • Frank Mills • Kim Mitchell • Bruce Murray • Oscar Peterson • Paul Shaffer • Graham Shaw • Jane Siberry • Leroy Sibbles • Ian Thomas • Sylvia Tyson • Catherine O'Hara • Andy Kim • Wayne St. John • Brian Good (The Good Brothers) • Colina Phillips • Gordon Deppe (Spoons) • Richard Manuel (The Band) • Marc Jordan • Aldo Nova • Robin Duke • Catherine McClenahan • Sharon Lee Williams

Instrumentation and production

Recording process

Joni Mitchell later spoke to writer Iain Blair about the recording experience: "I know it sounds ridiculous, but I was literally starving when we did the session 'cause my yoga teacher had sent me to a psychic dietician who, while rubbing her chin and swinging her arm around in a circle, had diagnosed a lot of food allergies. The result was, predictably, that I was hardly allowed to eat anything, so by the time I arrived with an apple and a rice patty, my poor stomach was making all these strange noises. Then we get in the studio, and the engineer says he can't record 'cause he's picking up some weird rumbling sound coming from my direction. (She laughed.) And it was all pretty ironic, considering the subject matter!" At one point during the recording process, Foster also had Neil Young re-record his line after singing the word "innocence" flat, to which Young famously quipped, "That's my sound, man."

Artists not appearing

Video

The song's video opens with footage from Brian Stewart's original CBC News report on the famine, and then cuts to the performers singing the song in a studio. Near the end of the video, footage also appears from the 1985 NHL All-Star Game in Calgary, depicting the Campbell Conference All-Stars and the Wales Conference All-Stars — including Wayne Gretzky, Grant Fuhr, Jari Kurri and Miroslav Frycer — singing along as the audience waves flags and banners in the air.

2022 live version

A live version of "Tears Are Not Enough" was performed at the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame gala in Toronto on September 24, 2022. The rendition included many original Northern Lights members including soloists Hart, Hill, and Cockburn plus new Canadian talent such as Alessia Cara and Charlotte Cardin.