Tears — Frankie Knuckles

“Tears” connects Tokyo, Chicago and New York. A young Japanese producer made the music in his bedroom, a singer wrote the words from memory after hearing it in a club, and Frankie Knuckles brought it together in 1989. It was Satoshi Tomiie’s debut single.

From Tokyo to New York

Satoshi Tomiie, born in Tokyo in 1966, was about 20 when house music reached Japan. During Frankie Knuckles’ first Japan tour, around 1987 or 1988, Tomiie made theme music for the parties, and that is how the two met. Knuckles invited him to New York, Tomiie’s first trip there. He brought a cassette with two tracks. Knuckles liked one of them, and it became “Tears”.

Tomiie had built the parts in his bedroom. Back in Tokyo he recorded all the instruments to two-inch tape and sent the reels to New York.

Robert Owens’ 15-minute lyric

Judy Weinstein of Def Mix heard the instrumental and suggested adding vocals. Tomiie wanted Robert Owens, the voice of Fingers Inc. with Larry Heard. “It would be my dream if we could get Robert Owens,” he told XLR8R. Owens had already heard the track in Knuckles’ set at Metro in Chicago. He wrote the lyrics in about 15 minutes, from memory, imagining an unreturned love. His first take was judged too aggressive, so he recorded a more structured one. Jennifer Lewis sang the short female part at the start.

Knuckles directed the vocal session and supervised the mix, a role Tomiie compared to Quincy Jones’.

FFRR, Def Mix and the charts

FFRR released “Tears” in 1989, billed as Frankie Knuckles Presents Satoshi Tomiie, with Owens on vocals; the writing credits name Tomiie, Owens and Knuckles. Def Mix’s David Morales added three remixes on the flip side. The record was a priority release, and the team was flown to England to promote it. It reached No. 50 in the UK and No. 10 on the US Hot Dance Club Play chart. Weinstein later described it as the beginning of Def Mix.

What came next

Tomiie went on to play keyboards on tour for Ryuichi Sakamoto, remix U2, Mariah Carey and David Bowie, and run SAW Recordings with Hector Romero. Owens scored a US club No. 1 with “I’ll Be Your Friend” in 1992. Knuckles, for his part, had already shaped Chicago house with the songs of Jamie Principle, from “Your Love” to “Baby Wants to Ride”.

XLR8R’s oral history counts the Classic Vocal version among house music’s most soulful moments. It is a slow builder, carried by Owens’ voice rather than by a drop. For Chicago records from the same years, dig into Marshall Jefferson’s “Move Your Body”.