BURNING THE GROUND EXCLUSIVE 1987
“Tell It to My Heart” is a song performed by American singer Taylor Dayne, released as her first single from her first album of the same name in late 1987. The single was Dayne’s first major exposure, and she soon became known for her up-tempo, dance-oriented music.
The song was written by Chappell Music staff songwriter Seth Swirsky and Ernie Gold. Swirsky almost didn’t deliver the song to his publisher after he and his girlfriend decided it was not good enough.
“Tell It To My Heart” reached Taylor Dayne when Dayne contacted Chappell Music and asked to be sent some demos which had been overlooked, although the song had been recorded in early 1987 by Louisa Florio for a self-titled Canadian album release. Dayne recalled feeling an immediate affinity with the song: “I thought there was something about the hook – it’s a happy hook.” The track was recorded at Cove City Sound Studios in Glen Cove, Long Island. The track took off so unexpectedly in the fall of 1987 that Taylor was forced to complete her debut album at Cove City Sound in six weeks. Swirsky would also write, along with Arnie Roman, Dayne’s follow-up single “Prove Your Love”. For almost two months, only the 12-inch record of “Tell It to My Heart” with four mixes was available for purchase. That 12-inch sold 900,000 copies alone.
Dayne was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal, Female for her performance on “Tell It to My Heart” in 1988. Producer Ric Wake said in a 1994 interview with Vibe magazine that Tell It To My Heart “really blew people away”. Commenting on Taylor Dayne’s voice he said “They thought she was, like, black or some kind of ethnic…”.
“Tell It to My Heart” appeared in the Top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100 the week of 14 November 1987, rising to #39 from #43. Ten weeks later, during the week of January 23, 1988, the single peaked in the number seven spot. The song was on the Hot 100 for 26 weeks. The song was also a top five dance hit in the U.S. reaching #4.
In the UK, “Tell It To My Heart” reached #3. It was ranked as the 23rd best-selling single of 1988 in the UK.
In 1995, “Tell It to My Heart'” was remixed and re-released to promote Dayne’s Greatest Hits package. This version climbed to #23 on the UK Singles Chart.
SIDE A:
Tell It To My Heart (Club Mix) 6:48
Tell It To My Heart (Percappella Mix) 3:23
SIDE B:
Tell It To My Heart (Single Mix) 3:42
Tell It To My Heart (Dub Mix) 5:47
VINYL GRADE:
Vinyl: Near Mint
Sleeve: Near Mint
U.S. CHART HISTORY:
Year | Single | Chart | Position |
---|---|---|---|
1987 | Tell It To My Heart | U.S. Billboard Hot 100 | #7 |
1987 | Tell It To My Heart | U.S. Billboard Hot Dance Music/Club Play | #4 |
RELEASE INFORMATION:
Label: Arista – AD1-9611
Format: Vinyl, 12″, 33 ⅓ RPM
Country: US
Released: 1987
Genre: Electronic
Style: Synth-pop
CREDITS:
Art Direction – Margery Greenspan
Engineer – Bob Cadway, Ric Wake
Keyboards – Rich Tancredi
Mastered By – ¢*
Mixed By – Ric Wake, Richie Jones
Other [Hair-Makeup] – Timmothy Montgomery
Other [Styling] – Susan Tobman
Photography By [Photo] – Gilles Larrain
Producer – Ric Wake
Written-By – Ernie Gold, Seth Swirsky
NOTES:
Produced for Bleux Productions
Recorded and Mixed at Cove City Sound Studios, Glen Cove, Long Island
Printed in U.S.A.
Find the 12″ on DISCOGS
VINYL RESTORATION BY:
-DjPaulT
burningtheground.net
EQUIPMENT USED:
Turntable: Pro-Ject Debut Carbon (DC)
Cartridge: Ortofon 2M
Stylus: Ortofon 2M Bronze
Isolation: Auralex Acoustics ISO-Tone Turntable Isolation Platform
Platter: Pro-Ject Acryl-It platter
Stabilizer: Pro-Ject Record Puck
Phono Pre-amp: Bellari VP130 Tube Phono Preamp
Tube: Tung-Sol 12AX7ECC803-S Gold Electron Tube
Soundcard: ESI Juli@
Record Cleaning: VPI HW 16.5 Record Cleaning Machine
Artwork Scans: Epson Workforce WF-7610 Professional Printer/Scanner
SOFTWARE USED:
Recording/Editing: Adobe Audition 3.0 (Recording)
Down Sampling: iZotope RX Advanced 2, ocenaudio
Artwork Editor: Adobe Photoshop CS5
Click Removal: Manual
FLAC/MP3 Conversion: dBpoweramp
M3U Playlist: Playlist Creator
RESTORATION NOTES:
All vinyl rips are recorded @ 32bit/float
FLAC (Level Eight)
MP3 (320kbps)
Artwork scanned at 600dpi
Paul forgot or couldn’t resurrect my comment from the spam box, don’t put two or more hot-links in your comments, they will not show up! This was hugely popular in the clubs while I was spinning! Major club classic, the mixes are hot as Taylor was at that time! The electro-funk beats especially well-liked among DJ’s. Think I checked out Louisa Florio’s version for the first time, well, not even close to Taylor’s passionate performance! It’s not just the great rips, but the stories behind the songs and mixes that BTG encourages me to find out or find out again… Read more »
Great song Paul, I’m amazed to find it’s not the original version. I’ve had a listen to Ms Louisa Florio’s original and it’s very interesting – quite dated for 1987 (sounds more like 1983 Madonna with that little guitar riff in the background), but I love little BTG nuggets like this.
I noticed the 7″ of Taylor Dayne’s version has an instrumental on the b-side that the 12″ does not have. I wonder if you have that too, so I could maybe hold a Taylor Dayne Karaoke Competition in my kitchen?
Hot Tune
I missed commenting yesterday, so I knew I had to do it first thing this morning. What a single Paul!! I remember when this came out I was blown away. The production and her voice!! WOW!! This record sounds like a live wire shooting electricity all over the place. So much music was influenced at this time by Latin Hip Hop (Freestyle) and I love records like this one that pushed limits. Too much of Freestyle later gave into clichés and bad song writing and bad singers. I am so pleased to have this original 12-inch from you in all… Read more »
One of my favourite singles from this era. I remember hearing Taylor Dayne’s voice for the first time and was blown away with the power she can register.
I’m a big fan of Richie Jones’s mixing work too.
Thanks Paul 🙂
Also just a friendly suggestion – Would you consider a 24bit/48khz ALAC format for iPhone users ? I am sure you blog and donations would explode if normal people could drag and drop to their iPhones without having to do transcodes. I use this amazing app called “Canopener” that can play 24/96 flac and has a very very good equalizers and cross feed algos. But i end up usually just down coverting everything to 24/48 ALAC to save some space and so i can share to less tech savvy friends. (iPhones are capped @ 24/48) I know doing yor entire… Read more »
Thanks for this one Paul. Back 20 years this was one of the first records I picked up that hooked me on my never ending 80’s quest. I played it to death but it wasn’t in good condition Just recently “Tell it to my Heart” LP got a 2CD re-release in 2015 with all the remixes included. It was modern remaster and it was that bright 16bit with dynamics hammered as usual… still listened it to death but was yearning for a proper 24bit. And boy did you deliver!!! Particularly that very faint synth at the beginning of the Dub… Read more »
really love taylor dayne and her music!!!!!!!!
‘house of hearts mix’ is the one i prefer!!!
i think it’s more powerful!!!!!!
and after came ‘prove your love’!!!!
fantastic songs!!!!!!
thanx a lot dj!!!!!!!
Just a heads-up: it looks like the MP3 .ZIP file contains the M3U playlist for one of the FLAC versions instead of the MP3 version…
Doctor you are like the mistake police lol 🙂 Fixed the mistake.
Good tune. Thank you. Nice to listen to it again AND in your trademark fantastic quality.
Thank you Alberto 🙂
This is definitely her best song. Complete 80’s freestyle. Thanks again Paul.
You’re welcome Joey 🙂
Great insight on this record, i have to say i’m not always a big fan of the music published here but it’s always a good read. Thanks for the info!
You’re welcome Frank 🙂