Freddy Fender – "Before the Next Teardrop Falls" (1975)

But if he ever breaks your heart

If the teardrops ever start

I’ll be there before the next teardrop falls

“Before the Next Teardrop Falls,” which was written in 1967, was recorded by several different artists (including Jerry Lee Lewis) before legendary producer Huey P. “The Crazy Cajun” Meaux talked Freddy Fender into recording a half-English, half-Spanish cover of it in 1975.  

It was one of several songs released in 1975 that made it to #1 on both the Billboard “Hot 100” and Billboard “Hot Country Singles” charts.  The others included Glen Campbell’s “Rhinestone Cowboy,” John Denver’s “Thank God I’m a Country Boy, “ B. J. Thomas’s “(Hey Won’t You Play) Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song,” and C. W. McCall’s “Convoy.”

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Freddy Fender was born Baldemar Garza Huerta in San Benito, Texas – just north of the Rio Grande – in 1937.  

He dropped out of high school to join the Marines, but had a drinking problem that resulted in his spending considerable time in the brig.  After being court-martialed in 1956, he returned to Texas and started performing in Latino nightclubs and honky-tonks as “El Bebop Kid:”

Huerta/Fender as “El Bebop Kid”

In 1958, Baldemar Huerta legally changed his name to Freddy Fender.  He took the name Fender from the famous electric guitar brand, and chose Freddy to go with it because he thought the alliteration sounded good.

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Click here to listen to “Before the Next Teardrop Falls.”

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