Sad Eyes

Album: Enrique (1999)
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Songfacts®:

  • Not to be confused with the '70s hit by Robert John, this "Sad Eyes" was written by Bruce Springsteen, who recorded it in 1990 and released it on his outtake albums Tracks (1998) and 18 Tracks (1999). Enrique Iglesias recorded it for his first English album, Enrique, which contains the hits "Bailamos" and "Be with You."

    Springsteen was working on his album Human Touch when he wrote and recorded the song. That album deals with the vagaries of love, which was his mindset for "Sad Eyes," a song about a couple that should probably be together but aren't.
  • Iglesias is a big Springsteen fan, so Jimmy Iovine, Springsteen's former producer, suggested he record this song. Iovine worked for Interscope Records, Iglesias' label.
  • A music video was made, but the record label thought it was too steamy to release. Directed by David LaChapelle, the erotic clip finds Iglesias alone in a motel room reveling in his sexual fantasies about a girl from a phone-sex ad. Scenes include a lovemaking session in a bathtub and an escapade involving a stripper pole above his bed.

    LaChapelle, a famed artist and photographer, was new to making videos but his art was often provocative. A year earlier, he captured a still of Eminem titled "About To Blow," which featured the naked rapper clutching a stick of dynamite. He courted controversy again when helped Christina Aguilera shed her good-girl image with the explicit "Dirrty" video. But the artist insists he isn't in the business of objectification.

    "I really enjoy sensuality," he told The Guardian in 2022 . "I love the human body. I've never seen what I do as objectification."

Comments: 3

  • Dee from Indianapolis, InWhy don't they have "Sad Eyes" by Robert John on here? I love that tune!!!
  • Aj from Cleveland, GaRobert John also did a song with the same name. It was released in 1979.
  • Alex from Gatineau, CanadaFinal single from "Enrique" album. Only known chart entry is a #49 peak in Canada.
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