Sad Eyes - Remastered 2002

In this soft rock hit from the '70s, the singer is dealing with a breakup that apparently he instigated. He tries to make a clean break, telling her what they had was good while it lasted, but she's having a hard time accepting it and keeps crying, which he can't handle. "Turn the other way - I don't want to see you cry," he tells her. Let's hope her next boyfriend is more sensitive.

Sandwiched in music history between Elton John and Robert Johnson, Robert John is a singer from Brooklyn who had a minor hit way back in 1958 with a song called "White Bucks And Saddle Shoes," which went to #74. At the time, he was using his real name: Bobby Pedrick, Jr. As Robert John, he charted again in 1968 when a song he co-wrote, "If You Don't Want My Love," went to #49. In 1972 he had a big hit with a cover of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight," which went to #3. He had a few minor hits as a songwriter ("Can't Help But Love You" for The Whispers, "I Can't Move No Mountains" for Blood, Sweat & Tears), but was out of music by the late '70s. In 1978, the producer George Tobin, who had worked with Kim Carnes and Natalie Cole, called Robert to reboot his career. That's when Robert John wrote "Sad Eyes." Tobin produced the track, and it climbed to #1 in 1979, just ahead of Michael Jackson's "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough."

According to George Tobin, Robert John was working in construction when they started working on this song. Tobin suggested he write a song along the lines of "My Angel Baby," a hit for Toby Beau in 1978. Using that as a reference John took about three months to write the song, making lots of changes along the way.