“Tell It to My Heart” by Taylor Dayne
Taylor Dayne’s “Tell It to My Heart” is a very ambiguous love song. What the vocalist is requesting from the addressee, her significant other, is that he “tell it to her heart”. And said request is a metaphor for the singer wanting to be convinced that the person she is singing to actually loves her.
In other words, she wants him to assure her that she is “the only one”, i.e. the addressee’s sole romantic interest. Or alternatively put, Taylor wants to walk away from the evening confident that this relationship is true love, not “just a game” her partner is playing.
And concerning the previously-noted ambiguity of the lyrics, there is a definite physical aspect to this song also, one that can perhaps be interpreted as the vocalist desiring a vigorous bonking in the name of achieving the idealized aforementioned conviction.
But then again, from an audio perspective, this is also blatantly a dance track. So expressions like “take me… into your arms” and going at it “body to body” can also be interpreted in such a context.
But what is evidently clear is that the vocalist herself is in love. So accordingly, she needs to make sure the person she has fallen for also feels the same before proceeding forward in their relationship.
Facts about “Tell It to My Heart”
Taylor Dayne is one of those singers who managed to blow up via her debut single, “Tell It to My Heart”. In fact the first seven singles that Dayne, a singer from New York’s Long Island, dropped all managed to make it within the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100.
And this particular song peaked at number 7 on said list. This is in addition to reaching third place on the UK Singles Chart. And the track actually proved to be a chart topper in a handful of European countries, including Germany and Switzerland. (In fact it had thoroughly blown up in Europe prior to Arista got around to releasing it stateside.)
And all things considered, “Tell It to My Heart” can be classified as one of the biggest hits of 1987, taking into account for instance that it placed within the top 10 of the year-end UK Singles Chart.
Moreover, this track received a Grammy nomination for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance in 1989. However, it lost to Tracy Chapman’s iconic song “Fast Car“.
“Tell It to My Heart” was produced by Ric Wake, a behind-the-scenes’ musician who has worked with many big-name female vocalists. And its writers are Seth Swirsky and one Ernie Gold. Taylor did not write this song!
More Facts
Clive Davis, who at that time was heading Arista Records (which he founded), was also instrumental in the composition of this song.
When Taylor received a demo of this song, she had already been in the game for a couple of years but was still by and large an amateur musician. So she had to actually borrow some money from her father to create her own demo of “Tell It to My Heart”. It was said demo that caught the ear of Clive and led to the official commencement of her discography.
Taylor named her 2019 autobiography (which focused on her music career) after this song.
And even though she did manage to top the Billboard Hot 100 in 1990 with “Love Will Lead You Back”, “Tell It to My Heart” seems to be generally considered as her signature song.
This track makes an appearance on the popular videogame Grand Theft Auto V (2013).
When did Taylor release “Tell It to My Heart”?
Taylor released this classic through Arista Records on 10 October 1987. It served as the title track to her debut album.
To note Taylor remixed this tune, as featured on her 1995 Greatest Hits album. And that version also had a noteworthy showing on the UK Singles Chart.
