TEARS AND SOUVENIRS
THE STYLISTICS
SONGWRITER: THE STYLISTIC
COUNTRY: U. S. A.
ALBUM: THANK YOU BABY
LABEL: AVCO RECORDS
GENRE: SOUL
YEAR: 1975
The Stylistics are an American, Philadelphia soul group that achieved their greatest chart success in the 1970s. They
formed in 1968, with a lineup of singers Russell
Thompkins Jr., Herb Murrell, Airrion Love,
James Smith and James Dunn. All of their US hits were ballads characterized by
the falsetto of Russell Thompkins Jr. and the production of Thom Bell. During
the early 1970s, the group had twelve consecutive R&B top ten hits,
including "Stop, Look,
Listen", "You Are Everything",
"Betcha by
Golly, Wow", "I'm Stone in
Love with You", "Break Up to
Make Up" and "You Make Me
Feel Brand New", which earned them 5 gold singles
and 3 gold albums.
The Stylistics were created from two
Philadelphia groups, The Percussions and The Monarchs. Russell Thompkins Jr.,
James Smith and Airrion Love came from the Monarchs, and James Dunn and Herb
Murrell came from the Percussions. In 1970, the group recorded "You're a Big Girl Now", a song their road manager Marty
Bryant co-wrote with
Robert Douglas, a member of their backing band Slim and the Boys, and the single became a regional hit for Sebring
Records. Producer Bill Perry spent $400 to record the song in the Virtue
Studios in Philadelphia. The larger Avco Records soon signed the Stylistics, and the single eventually climbed to No.
7 on the US Billboard R&B chart in early 1971.
The day she said
goodbye
the day she said goodbye
she left me with tears
tears and souvenirs
tears and souvenirs
tears and souvenir
hello faded valentine
do you remember me
how will I know
your words of yesterday
valentine what's new today
hello happy photograph
I still remember you
that funny face
that change my life somehow
photograph where is she now...
the day she said goodbye
the day she said goodbye
the day she said goodbye
she left me with tears
tears and souvenir
little painted clown
lies that meants so much
we've been out of touch
and you were born of
deck of cards
you knew very well
I've been left alone
playing solitaire...
hello silent souvenirs
forgive me if I should cry
but no one knows.
as well as you my friends
this life of mine
came to an end
the day she said goodbye
the day she said goodbye
and left me with tears
tears and souvenirs
tears and souvenirs
the day she said goodbye
tears and souvenirs
the day she said goodbye
tears and souvenirs.