Letter Full of Tears
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| "Letter Full of Tears" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Single by Gladys Knight & the Pips | ||||
| from the album Letter Full of Tears | ||||
| B-side | "You Broke Your Promise" | |||
| Released | November 1961 | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 2:45 | |||
| Label | Fury | |||
| Songwriter | Don Covay | |||
| Producers | ||||
| Gladys Knight & the Pips singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
"Letter Full of Tears" is a song written by American singer-songwriter Don Covay and released by Gladys Knight & the Pips as a single in November 1961. It became their second top-20 hit, peaking at number 19 on the Billboard Hot 100.[1] The song was covered the following year by English singer Billy Fury who had a minor hit with it in the UK.
After the top-ten success of "Every Beat of My Heart" earlier in 1961, subsequent releases of a re-recording of "Every Beat of My Heart" and a cover of the Jesse Belvin song "Guess Who" had failed to continue the group's success. They then asked songwriter Don Covay, who had written Chubby Checker's number one hit "Pony Time", to write a song for them. The resulting song, "Letter Full of Tears", was then arranged by Horace Ott. Bubba Knight has said it "was the first time we had ever used a string section". However, producer Bobby Robinson "didn't really want to record strings, and Marshall Sehorn begged him to put strings on this song for us. Because during this time, when you used strings, it kind of made yourself a bit more sophisticated than the regular R&B thing".[2]
Track listing
7": Fury / 1054
- "Letter Full of Tears" – 2:45
- "You Broke Your Promise" – 2:45
Charts
| Chart (1962) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| US Billboard Hot 100[1] | 19 |
| US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs (Billboard)[3] | 3 |
| US Cash Box Top 100[4] | 17 |
| US Cash Box R&B Top 50[4] | 6 |
