B-side "You Don't Know Me" Genre Pop Label Columbia | Released September 1982 Length 4:25 | |
Writer(s) Neil Diamond, Carole Bayer Sager and Burt Bacharach | ||
"Heartlight" is a song written by Neil Diamond, Carole Bayer Sager and her then-husband Burt Bacharach, and recorded by Diamond in 1982. The song is the first track on Diamond's 1982 album, also titled Heartlight, and reached number five on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming his eighth (and last) top 5 hit on the chart. The song also spent four weeks atop the adult contemporary chart in late 1982, and was the last of his eight #1s on that chart.
The song is inspired by the blockbuster movie E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, which Diamond, Bayer Sager and Bacharach had all seen together. When the alien E.T. leaves Earth, his heart glows a luminous red, hence the title of the song.
The songwriters were required to pay Universal Studios $25,000 for the use of ideas from the film.