"I Don't Have the Heart" is a song written by Allan Rich and and recorded by American R&B recording artist

James Ingram James Edward Ingram (February 16, 1952 – January 29, 2019) was an American singer, songwriter and record producer. He was a two-time Grammy Award-winner and a two-time Academy Awards, Academy Award nominee for Academy Award for Best Original ...

. It is Ingram's only number-one single as a solo artist on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100, and his second number-one single overall, since the

Patti Austin Patti Austin (born August 10, 1950) is an American R&B, pop, and jazz singer and songwriter. Music career Austin was born in Harlem, New York, to Gordon Austin, a jazz trombonist. She was raised in Bay Shore, New York on Long Island. Quincy ...

-featured " Baby, Come to Me", which topped the Hot 100 in 1983. Ingram received a

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pres ...

nomination for

Best Male Pop Vocal Performance The Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance was a Grammy Award recognizing superior vocal performance by a male in the pop category, the first of which was presented in 1959. It was discontinued after the 2011 Grammy season. The award wen ...

at the 33rd Grammy Awards in 1991 for the song. Released as the fourth single from Ingram's 1989 album '' It's Real'', "I Don't Have the Heart" reached the top of the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart on October 20, 1990. The

ballad A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads derive from the medieval French ''chanson balladée'' or ''ballade'', which were originally "dance songs". Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and ...

remained at No. 1 for one week, and became his final Top 40 hit. Singer

Stacy Lattisaw Stacy Lattisaw Jackson (née Lattisaw; born November 25, 1966) is an American R&B singer from Washington, D.C., United States. Career The 1979 song "Ring My Bell" was originally written for then twelve-year-old Lattisaw, as a teenybopper song ...

recorded the song as well, and her version was released on

Motown Records Motown Records is an American record label owned by the Universal Music Group. It was founded by Berry Gordy, Berry Gordy Jr. as Tamla Records on June 7, 1958, and incorporated as Motown Record Corporation on April 14, 1960. Its name, a portmant ...

at the same time as Ingram's, although it was not as commercially successful.

Composition

"I Don't Have The Heart" was the first song that the duo of Allan Rich and Jud Friedman created together. Introduced by head of Peermusic Kathy Spanberger, Rich had already written the first verse and chorus of the song. Inspired by what he heard Friedman invited Rich over to his apartment in L.A. to finish the lyrics. Together they wrote the second verse and the bridge. Speaking about the strength of Rich's lyrics, Friedman told Songwriting Magazine, “Allan says he’s not a poetic lyricist, and he’s not a flowery lyricist. He is very conversational, but in a good way, and that has its own poetry. It’s the poetry of reality and the poetry of life and interactions. And the thing about I Don’t Have The Heart, among many brilliant things about Allan’s idea for the song, is it’s an example of taking a phrase that’s very well known, ‘I don’t have the heart,’ and flipping it. ‘I don’t have the heart to hurt you but I don’t have the heart to love you.’ He used it in two different ways, and that was poetic. We’ve all been there, sometimes wearing one of the shoes and sometimes wearing the other.”

Personnel

*Keyboards, Synth Programming: Jud Friedman *Bass Guitar, String Conductor: Thom Bell *Electric Guitar: Paul Jackson Jr. *Drums:

Ricky Lawson William Riser III (November 8, 1954 – December 23, 2013), better known as Ricky Lawson, was an American drummer and composer. A native of Detroit, Michigan, he worked extensively as a session musician, collaborating with Stevie Wonder, Mich ...

*Background Vocals: The Aquarian Singers

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

References

1989 songs 1990 singles Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles Cashbox number-one singles James Ingram songs Stacy Lattisaw songs Motown singles Warner Records singles Songs written by Jud Friedman Pop ballads Song recordings produced by Thom Bell {{1990s-R&B-song-stub