[7][8][nb 1] Harrison later said that Warner's had complained that the album lacked an obvious single, and others had told him that a hit song had to be about "love gained or lost, directed at 14- to 20-year-olds".

[12][13] According to Derek Taylor, who presented Somewhere in England to the Warner's executives in late September,[14] and then had to relay their disapproval,[1] Harrison resolved to give the company the market-focused material they wanted.

[23] Harrison recorded "Teardrops" at his Friar Park studio in Oxfordshire during the second period of sessions for the album, beginning in November 1980[1][25] and extending to mid January 1981.

[26] Besides Harrison on guitars, the musicians were Herbie Flowers on bass, Ray Cooper on percussion, Dave Mattacks on drums and Mike Moran on keyboards.

[31] According to music journalist John Metzger, as on the three other new tracks – "Blood from a Clone", "All Those Years Ago" and "That Which I Have Lost" – the production had "the peppy, pop-oriented sheen" that Warner's deemed necessary.

The reviewer wrote: "Mellifluous keyboards and a resounding title chorus that won't quit are an unbeatable combination on this follow-up to the top 5 'All Those Years Ago.'

"[39] In an otherwise highly unfavourable review of Somewhere in England, for Creem, Mitchell Cohen said that "Actually, 'Teardrops' is OK."[41] The Boston Globe critic James Simon likened it to Harrison's 1977 hit "Crackerbox Palace", as an example of "a simple pop ditty ... with his sincere voice cutting through a perky arrangement" and therefore one of the few interesting tracks on the album.

[30] It missed the UK top 75,[34] although Record Mirror included the song in the magazine's inaugural 25 "bubbling under" placings, on 15 August, compiled from the official BMRB/Music Week chart data.

[56][57] According to Alan Clayson, this was a gesture designed to satisfy Warner Bros. in advance, while Harrison otherwise had no interest in the album's commercial performance and, as with Somewhere in England, made no attempt to promote the release.

[23] Writing in 2018 for Uncut's Ultimate Music Guide issue on Harrison, Jason Anderson complained that the song's "thin veneer of pep can't disguise its formulaic nature or its singer's indifference".