Massive Attack - Teardrop
"Love, love is a verb. Love is a doing word."
Album: Mezzanine [3rd album]
Recorded: Bristol, England
Genre: Trip Hop
Album Release: April 20th 1998
Single Release: April 27th 1998 [2nd single]
Length: 5:31
Producer: Massive Attack and Neil Davidge
Vocals: Elizabeth Fraser [age 34]
Label: Virgin Records
Music video
Live for MTV
Charts, Sales & Streams
Iceland: #1
UK: #10 (certified platinum in 2019)
Spotify: Over 260 million
YouTube Music: Over 175 million
MTV Europe Music Awards Best Video Winner 1998
Credits
Vocals: Elizabeth Fraser
Details
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DJ Mushroom wanted Madonna to do vocals for the track and even sent the instrumental to her. Madonna was eager but the other members of Massive Attack wanted Elizabeth Fraser from Cocteau Twins and it was Fraser who got the gig. Mushroom left Massive Attack in 1999, one year after the album released. The group never reached the same heights again.
- Elizabeth Fraser told The Guardian in 2009 that she received the news of Jeff Buckley's death while she was writing the song and that it's about him. "I'd got letters out and I was thinking about him. That song's kind of about him - that's how it feels to me anyway." The pair had briefly dated.
- Beginning as a riff on a harpsichord the band added a piano and drums.
- The producers of the 1999 Oscar winning film American Beauty wanted to use the song as their main musical theme but the band refused. They didn't like the sound of the film and later admitted regretting their decision.
- There is a cover version by Elbow.
- There is a cover version by Red Hot Chilli Peppers that features bagpipes.
- There is a cover version by Hayley Williams of Paramore
Artwork
