Eric Clapton's 1991 single "Tears in Heaven" remains the best-selling record of his career, a song born from personal tragedy following the death of his four-year-old son, Conor. The track stands apart from his earlier commercial peaks, including his time with Cream, Blind Faith and Derek and the Dominos, and his solo hits such as "After Midnight" and "I Shot the Sheriff" (his only US number one), because it emerged directly from grief rather than his broader musical career.

Conor died on 20 March 1991 after falling from the 53rd-floor window of his mother's New York apartment while visiting from Italy; his mother was actress Lory Del Santo, with whom Clapton had had an affair during his marriage to Pattie Boyd. A window that had been left open for cleaning was not properly secured, and Conor slipped past a housekeeper before falling 49 storeys onto an adjoining building. Clapton, who was staying nearby at the time, channelled his grief into the song later that year, and it went on to outsell every other single of his career.