Owner of a Lonely Heart
Encyclopedia : O : OW : OWN : Owner of a Lonely Heart
"Owner of a Lonely Heart" is a song by the British rock band Yes. It is the opening track of their 1983 album 90125. Written primarily by Trevor Rabin (who was new to the band at the time), the song reached number one on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 — to this date Yes's biggest chart success by far.
Standout features of the song include:
- its utter simplicity (something for which Yes has never been known);
- the catchy, heavily distorted introductory guitar riff, which establishes a motif for the song;
- producer Trevor Horn's innovative use of jarring orchestra hits and other high-tech sound effects;
- Rabin's disorienting, schizophrenic guitar solo, which sounds as if it were recorded at maximum volume in a phone booth;
- copious use of cowbell.
The song's music video, directed by Peter Christopherson, received a great deal of airplay on MTV, introducing the revamped Yes lineup and sound to a new generation of fans largely unfamiliar with the band's very different earlier work, which helped to define the genre of progressive rock.
"Owner of a Lonely Heart" was remixed by Max Graham, reaching number nine in the UK Singles Chart. 808 State also did remixes ('2 Close To the Edge Mix' and 'Not Fragile Mix'). and Kyper used riffs of the song in his own song "Tic-Tac-Toe". The song is also covered by Andy Lau #redirect , a popular Hong Kong pop star; and by Colin Blunstone, backed by an orchestra. Yet another remix was done in 2004 by Deep Dish.
- [Yes - Owner Of A Lonely Heart excerpt] ([file info])
- *
- * Problems listening to the file? See [Media helpmedia help].
Origins
"Owner of a Lonely Heart" was, according to a radio interview with Yes in 1991 (with the Union tour), originally written as a ballad, not as the rock song that became famous. Jon Anderson convinced producer Trevor Horn to speed it up and add some guitar riffs to make it stand out and be more "upbeat".
An extremely raw demo version of the song can be found on Rabin's album 90124, with a different pre-chorus verse and a jazz fusion keyboard solo reminiscent of Chick Corea.
The song in popular culture
- The song was featured in a 1984 advertisement for the Nissan 280Z.
- The song was parodied briefly as part of a polka medley on "Weird Al" Yankovic's Dare to be Stupid album.
- Mystery Science Theater 3000 poked good-naturedly at the song's premise in "Final Justice," while co-host Kevin Murphy's vocal range permitted him to imitate Jon Anderson's tenor on several occasions during the show's 10-year run.
- The popular television show Grey's Anatomy has an episode titled "Owner of a Lonely Heart"—presumably a reference to the song.
- The song was featured on the radio station Flash FM as part of the official soundtrack of the video game .
- The song was featured in the 2006 movie The Break-Up where it was sung in the movie by the character playing the brother of Jennifer Aniston's character.
See also
|- style="text-align: center;"
External links
| Yes |
|---|
| Jon Anderson | Chris Squire | Steve Howe | Rick Wakeman | Alan White |
| Peter Banks | Tony Kaye| Bill Bruford | Patrick Moraz | Geoff Downes | Trevor Horn | Trevor Rabin | Billy Sherwood | Igor Khoroshev |
| Discography |
| Studio albums: Yes | Time and a Word | The Yes Album | Fragile | Close to the Edge | Tales from Topographic Oceans | Relayer | Going for the One | Tormato | Drama | 90125 | Big Generator | Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe | Union | Talk | Open Your Eyes | The Ladder | Magnification |
| Live albums: Yessongs | Yesshows | ' | Keys to Ascension | Keys to Ascension 2 | ' |
| Compilations: Yesterdays | Classic Yes | Yesstory | |
| Remix albums: Yes Remixes |
| Box sets: Yesyears | | The Word is Live |
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.