“Levi Stubbs Tears” by Billy Bragg

"Levi Stubbs' Tears" was the first single from Talking with the Taxman about Poetry, Billy Bragg's 1986 album, and it's a small, tender thing. The title nods to Levi Stubbs, lead singer of the Four Tops, whose records stay the one comfort for the song's central character through years of being abandoned, hurt and beaten at home.

Bragg sings it and plays the electric guitar, with Dave Woodhead's flugelhorn and trumpet adding a sad brass glow, and Kenny Jones, who co-produced it with John Porter, among the percussionists. The guitar riff got a second life when Norman Cook sampled it for his 1989 track "Won't Talk About It", with Bragg singing falsetto. In 2014 NME ranked the song at 207 on its list of the 500 greatest songs of all time.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.