NORTHERN LIGHTS/CANADIAN ALL STARS
(Tears Are Not Enough)

On February 10, 1985 53 Canadian recording artists gathered at Manta Sound Studios in Toronto,  to donate their time and talent to record a song written by David Foster (music), Bryan Adams and Jim Vallance (words). Additional French lyrics were provided by Rachel Paiement.

The idea for producing the "Tears Are Not Enough" album and song came after the success Band Aid, USA for Africa, Band für Africa, and the Hear N' Aid projects. Bruce Allen in conjunction with David Foster. The success from all the African Aid projects was still the talk in the music industry.

The end result was the historic recording of "Tears Are Not Enough", performed by artists including
 (in order of appearance), Gordon Lightfoot, Burton Cummings, Anne Murray, Joni Mitchell, Dan Hill, Neil Young, Bryan Adams, Corey Hart, Bruce Cockburn, Geddy Lee (Rush) and Mike Reno of (Loverboy).

Heard in duos or trios were; Reno with Liberty Silver; Carroll Baker, Ronnie Hawkins and Murray McLauchlan; Véronique Béliveau, Robert Charlebois and Claude Dubois; Adams with Don Gerrard; Salome Bey, Mark Holmes and Lorraine Segato; (Lisa) Dalbello and
(Alfie) Zappacosta; Paul Hyde and Carole Pope. Chorus members included Liona Boyd, Tom Cochrane, Tommy Hunter, Kim Mitchell,
Oscar Peterson, Paul Shaffer, Jane Siberry and Sylvia Tyson.

The Tears Are not Enough recording was issued as a 7-inch and as a 12-inch single by CBS (BEN-7073 & BEN-7074) in March of 1985.
The song reached No. 1 on Canadian charts by late April, eventually selling more than 300,000 copies. Tears are Not enough was later included on the USA For Africa LP We Are The World and sung by Bryan Adams at the Live Aid concert.

A video of the song was shown often in 1985 on Canadian Television and a 90-minute documentary of the recording session, directed by John Zaritsky, was telecast on December 22, 1985 by the CBC. The documentary was subsequently made available commercially on home video. Administered by the Northern Lights for Africa Society in Vancouver, proceeds from the project exceeded $3.2 million by 1990, with 10% going to Canadian assistance programs and the remainder to Ethiopian famine relief.