Eric Clapton - Tears In Heaven Lyrics

"Tears in Heaven" is a song by English guitarist, singer, and songwriter Eric Clapton and Will Jennings, written about the death of Clapton's four-year-old son, Conor. It appeared on the 1991 Rush film soundtrack. In January 1992, Clapton performed the song in front of an audience at Bray Studios, Berkshire, England for MTV Unplugged, with the recording appearing on his Unplugged album.

On 20 March 1991, Clapton's four-year-old son, Conor, whom he had with Lory Del Santo, died after falling from the 53rd-floor window of a New York City apartment belonging to a friend of Conor's mother. After isolating himself for a period, Clapton began working again, writing music for the film Rush (1991). He dealt with his grief by co-writing "Tears in Heaven", with Will Jennings, for the soundtrack. Clapton said he admired Jennings' work with Steve Winwood.

According to Jennings, Clapton wrote the lyrics for the first verse, and asked him to write the rest. Jennings urged Clapton to write the entire song due to the personal subject matter, but eventually agreed. He said it was "a song so personal and so sad that it is unique in my experience of writing songs".

In an interview in 1992, Clapton said the song "was in the back of my head but it didn't really have a reason for being until I was scoring this movie ... And it is a little ambiguous because it could be taken to be about Conor but it also is meant to be part of the film." In another interview, he said: "I almost subconsciously used music for myself as a healing agent, and lo and behold, it worked... I have got a great deal of happiness and a great deal of healing from music."

The song was Clapton's best-selling single in the United States and reached number two on the Billboard Hot 100. In the United Kingdom, where Clapton is from, it reached number five on the UK Singles Chart, and also charted in the top 10 in more than 20 countries. It won three Grammy Awards for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance, Song of the Year, and Record of the Year.

In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked "Tears in Heaven" 353rd on its list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time".