Maxwell Makes Us Get All Misty Over TV’s Early Days In “Fistful Of Tears” Video

We knew from the first time we laid eyes on the exclusive stills from Maxwell’s “Fistful Of Tears” video that he’d gotten it exactly right. Shot in rich 35mm black-and-white, the Phil Andelman-directed video captures Maxwell raw performance skills, as seen during a “live” rendition on an old-school TV stage. As Simon Vozick-Levinson just pointed out at EW‘s Music Mix, “a song this elegant doesn’t need flashy visuals”. (Though the silhouette work at the end is pretty slick). Watch the beautifully shot vid for what may be BLACKsummers’night‘s best track below.

The video rightly casts Maxwell as a classic soul singer, or at least as the heir to the legacy of 60s soul icons like Sam Cooke and Otis Redding. (Obviously, unless he has a hot tub time machine, it’s too late for Maxwell to perform on The Ed Sullivan Show. But he did a terrific rendition of “Fistful Of Tears” on television’s next-best venue: Oprah.)

Maxwell will be performing on Dancing With The Stars next week. Let’s see if he can measure up to Sade in the smoothness department.

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