"Before the Next Teardrop Falls" is an American country and
pop song written by Vivian Keith and Ben Peters, and most
famously recorded by Freddy Fender.
The song was written in the late 1960s and had been recorded
more than two dozen times. At best, the song had achieved
modest success by other performers. Duane Dee took a version to
the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 in 1965, and Linda Martell
sent her version to No. 33 on the country charts.
In 1974, record producer Huey P Meaux approached Fender
about overdubbing vocals for an instrumental track. Fender
agreed, performing the song bi-lingual style — singing the
first verse in English, then repeating the verse in
Spanish.
"The recording only took a few minutes," Fender once told an
interviewer. "I was glad to get it over with and I thought that
would be the last of it."
However, "Before the Next Teardrop Falls" immediately took
off in popularity when released to country radio in January
1975. The song ascended to No. 1 on the
Billboard magazineHot Country Singles chart in March,
spending two weeks atop the chart. Thereafter, the song caught
on just as strongly at Top 40 radio stations, and it wasn't
long before Fender had a No. 1 Billboard Hot 100 hit as
well.
The song is about a man's undaunted determination to save
his heart for the just-departed object of his deep (but
unrequited) love, and sincere hope that should the woman's new
relationship not work out, she will remember his love and
return to him.
A showcase of Fender's fluttering tenor and Meaux's Tex-Mex
musical styling, "Before the Next Teardrop Falls" jump-started
his career. (Fender's career had stalled in 1960 after his
arrest on drug charges.) In the months and years that followed,
Fender recorded several bi-lingual standards which became major
hits, most notably "Secret Love."
BMI Songwriter Sterling Blythe claimed that he had sold the
rights to a portfolio of songs, among them "Before the Next
Teardrop Falls," for $4,500 to settle debts when he left
Nashville for the West Coast prior to Fender's recording. Until
his death in Sacramento in 2001, Blythe carried a newspaper
clipping about Fender's bankruptcy filing in his wallet.
"Before The Next Teardrop Falls" was certified gold for
sales of 1 million units by the Recording Industry Association
of America. [3] The song also won the Single of the Year award
from the Country Music Association in 1975, and was
instrumental in Fender also winning that year's Album of the
Year and Male Vocalist of the Year awards.
"Before the Next Teardrop Falls" was one of six songs
released in 1975 that topped both the Billboard Hot 100 and
BillboardHot Country Singles charts. The other songs
were "(Hey Won't You Play) Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong
Song" by B.J. Thomas, "Rhinestone Cowboy" by Glen Campbell;
"Thank God I'm a Country Boy" and the two-sided hit "I'm
Sorry"/"Calypso," both by John Denver; and "Convoy" by C.W.
McCall.