Canadian bands determined to break big in the US in the 80s had to do so at an extremely competitive time in pop music. Artists were coming in from all corners of the globe with a wide variety of sounds, trying to make it happen.
Glass Tiger popped in from Canada with old-fashioned musical values and found themselves quickly storming the US charts. On their first single, a couple of their countrymen helped out a great deal when it came to the song’s success.
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Tiger, Tiger
Formed in Ontario, Canada, in 1981, Glass Tiger took its name from a term found in the George Plimpton non-fiction book Paper Lion. Impressively, four of the five members of the band that made their debut album, The Thin Red Line, in 1986, are still members of the band today.
But we’re getting a little bit ahead of ourselves. First, Glass Tiger scored a record deal, which they did based on some demos that they made. Those demos also caught the attention of Jim Vallance. In the mid-80s, Vallance was riding high as the chief songwriting collaborator with fellow Canadian Bryan Adams.
Vallance thought at first that he might just give the band some advice on the songs. But he took a personal liking to them. He quickly agreed to produce their debut. Glass Tiger visited Vallance at his studio, and it wasn’t long before a couple of hit songs came from the process, including their debut single “Don’t Forget Me (When I’m Gone)”.
Remember To “Forget”
At first, the members of Glass Tiger and Vallance talked about the music they were enjoying. Someone mentioned the song “Everybody Wants To Rule The World”. Vallance brought up a similar rhythmic bed to the Tears for Fears hit. After some keyboards were added by Sam Reid, lead singer Alan Frew sang the line, “Don’t forget me when I’m gone,” in the verse section.
Vallance liked what he heard. But he made the suggestion to hold off on that line until the refrain. The final touch came when Vallance called in one more favor. Bryan Adams popped up to add some vocals alongside Frew in the refrain.
The presence of Adams, one of the biggest stars on the planet at that time, certainly didn’t hurt Glass Tiger in terms of the song’s chart success. But “Don’t Forget Me (When I’m Gone)”, a rock-solid piece of pop craft, likely would have done just fine anyway. It made it all the way to No. 2 in America in 1986.
Behind the Lyrics of “Don’t Forget Me (When I’m Gone)”
Alan Frew claimed afterward that there wasn’t much forethought to his lyrics for “Don’t Forget Me (When I’m Gone)”. Sometimes, that’s the best way to come up with idiosyncratic couplets like “You take my breath away/Love thinks it’s here to stay.”
Later, the narrator suggests that the hurt he’s already witnessed and endured has made him ill-suited to deal with more. “If you could see what I have seen,” Frew sings. “Broken hearts and broken dreams.” He lays it on extra vulnerable in the refrain. “I have loved you for so long,” he admits. “It’s all I can take.”
Not long after the band put together “Don’t Forget Me (When I’m Gone)” with Vallance, they also recorded “Someday”. The ballad also took off on the charts as their follow-up hit. That one-two punch put Glass Tiger on the map and formed the basis for a long, impressive career.
Photo by Jim Steinfeldt/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images