Welcome to Music Friday when we bring you great songs with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the lyrics or title. Today, our spotlights shines on Savage Garden, an Australian pop duo that loved to open its live shows with an over-the-top, dancing-in-the-aisles rendition of “Tears of Pearls.”
Pearls are referenced throughout the song to represent emotions that are so private and so precious that they are locked away for nobody to see. When the emotions can no longer be contained, they bubble to the surface resulting in “tears of pearls.”
Vocalist and co-writer Darren Hayes sings, “Your kisses are like pearls / So different and so rare / But anger stole the jewels away / And love has left you bare / Made you cry / These tears of pearls.”
First appearing in March of 1997 as the third track on the group’s self-titled debut album, “Tears of Pearls” was finally released as the seventh and final single from the album in May of 1999. The album would go on to sell more than 12 million copies worldwide.
Bandmembers Hayes and Daniel Jones shared the writing credits for “Tears of Pearls,” but the backstory reveals the collaboration was an unusual one, where Jones took directions from Hayes to achieve a “hipster-retroist” tribute to the New Wave acts of the 1980s. The resulting high-energy, theatrical “Tears of Pearls” became the song that would open Savage Garden’s live shows and tours.
Formed in Logan City, Queensland, in 1994, Savage Garden earned international acclaim in the late 1990s with its chart-topping hits “I Want You,” “To the Moon and Back,” “Truly Madly Deeply,” “The Animal Song” and “I Knew I Loved You.” The group disbanded in 2001.
Please check out the official video Savage Garden performing “Tears of Pearls.” The lyrics are below if you’d like to sing along…
“Tears of Pearls”
Written by Darren Hayes and Daniel Jones. Performed by Savage Garden.
And we stare each other down
Like victims in the grind
Probing all the weakness and
Hurt still left behind and we cry
The tears of pearls
We do it. Oh we do it.
Is love really the tragedy the way you
Might describe?
Or would a thousand lovers
Still leave you cold inside?
Make you cry
These tears of pearls
All these mixed emotions
We keep locked away like stolen pearls
Stolen pearl devotions we
Keep locked away from all the world
Your kisses are like pearls,
So different and so rare
But anger stole the jewels away
And love has left you bare,
Made you cry
These tears of pearls
Well I could be the tired joker
Pour my heart to get you in
Sacrifice my happiness just so I could win
Maybe cry
These tears of pearls
All these mixed emotions
We keep locked away like stolen pearls
Stolen pearl devotions we
Keep locked away from all the world
We twist and turn where angels burn
Like fallen soldiers we will learn
Once forgotten, twice removed
Love will be the death
The death of you
All these mixed emotions
We keep locked away like stolen pearls
Stolen pearl devotions we
Keep locked away from all the world
Credit: Screen capture via YouTube.com / sgvideos.