Heaven in Your Arms

Background

Released in America and Canada only, the single followed Hartman's previous single It Hurts to Be in Love, which was a minor hit on the Billboard Hot 100 and the Dance Music/Club Play Singles chart. "Heaven in Your Arms" did not reach higher than the its predecessor but it did peak at #86 on the Billboard Hot 100, and would be Hartman's last charting single on the chart until 1984. The song lasted in the Top 100 for a total of five weeks.

The song, like the entire It Hurts to Be in Love album, was recorded at The Schoolhouse, mixed at Power Station and mastered at Sterling Sound. The Schoolhouse was Hartman's own home studio in Connecticut.

Release

The single was released via 7" vinyl by Blue Sky in America and Canada only, where it would be Hartman's second to last single from the label. It was distributed and manufactured by CBS Records. Two editions of the single were issued. The main release featured the b-side "Hello Again", which was the closing track on the It Hurts to Be in Love album, and was also written and produced by Hartman. The other edition was a promotional 7" single which featured "Heaven in Your Arms" on both sides of the vinyl. Both editions of the single did not feature a picture sleeve but a generic Blue Sky Records sleeve instead. The song has never appeared on any compilations.

Promotion

A music video was created for the single, which was produced by Jerry King Musser, a friend of Hartman since high school in Harrisburg, who also took the photograph for the It Hurts to Be in Love album. The video remained rare and presumed lost until in 2010 when Musser discovered part of the original video on a VHS tape, and made it available on the internet via YouTube and Vimeo. In December 2014 the entire video was discovered by Musser's wife Janette, and digitized, before being uploaded onto YouTube.

For Hartman's unofficial fan site, Musser wrote "I remember that we shot the whole thing in less than a day in an old unused department store in downtown Harrisburg. The budget was something incredibly cheap like $5,000. One of the biggest costs was having large Levelor "venetian" blinds made for the shoot. Red and silver. Thus, the imagery. I remember being heavily into those colors in that period. So, the whole piece was shot with these window blinds with red, black, and silver being the colors used to attempt some form of design into it. I had one sound guy who kept playing the song back for Danny to lip sync to, and one assistant, and me. I always felt it very kind of Danny to have even asked me to do it. Of course, I didn't get rich on it but that wasn't the point for me then either. I loved doing it for him."

On Vimeo, where the abridged version of the video was uploaded, Musser stated "This is as much of the video I could find. I have no idea where the full version exists or how much, really, is missing. Maybe one day I'll find it. We shot this in an unused clothing store in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. The budget was under a thousand bucks (and probably looks it). Shot in an afternoon. But, Danny made it fun. Shot, I believe, on an Arriflex BL, 16mm film. Nagra recorder playback for lip sync. Edited, probably, on a Steenbeck. No, I don't miss film one bit."

Track listing

1. "Heaven in Your Arms" - 3:34
2. "Hello Again" - 4:23

1. "Heaven in Your Arms" - 3:34
2. "Heaven in Your Arms" - 3:34

Personnel