Heartlight (song)

"Heartlight"
Single by Neil Diamond
from the album Heartlight
B-side"You Don't Know Me"
ReleasedSeptember 1982
GenrePop
Length4:25
LabelColumbia
Songwriter(s)Neil Diamond, Carole Bayer Sager and Burt Bacharach
Neil Diamond singles chronology
"Be Mine Tonight"
(1982)
"Heartlight"
(1982)
"I'm Alive"
(1983)

"Heartlight" is a song written by Neil Diamond, Carole Bayer Sager and her then-husband, Burt Bacharach,[1] and recorded by Diamond in 1982. It is the first track on Diamond's 1982 album, also titled Heartlight, and reached number five on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming his thirteenth (and last) top 10 hit on the chart. It also spent four weeks atop the adult contemporary chart in late 1982, and was the last of his eight #1s on that chart.[2] Reportedly, it was inspired by the 1982 film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, and Diamond allegedly settled with MCA/Universal for $25,000, due to its supposedly drawing on the material of the film.[3]

Cash Box said that the song "will unquestionably stick in the minds of adult pop and A/C listeners like a piece of ear candy."[4] Billboard described it as a "pretty, romantic ballad with a light, lilting melodyline."[5]

  1. ^ William Ruhlmann. "Neil Diamond | Biography & History". AllMusic. Retrieved 2016-10-31.
  2. ^ "Neil Diamond - Biography". Billboard. Retrieved 2016-10-31.
  3. ^ Andy Greene (17 December 2019). "Flashback: Neil Diamond's E.T. Ode 'Heartlight' Causes Legal Skirmish". Rolling Stone.
  4. ^ "Reviews" (PDF). Cash Box. September 4, 1982. p. 10. Retrieved 2022-07-07.
  5. ^ "Top Single Picks". Billboard. September 4, 1982. p. 63. Retrieved 2023-01-29.