"Tell It to My Heart" is a 1987 song performed by American singer

Taylor Dayne Taylor Dayne (born Leslie Wunderman; March 7, 1962) is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. She rose to fame in 1987 after her debut single " Tell It to My Heart". Dayne achieved six additional U.S. top-10 singles, including "Love Will ...

, released as her first single from her first album of the same name. 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 Seth Swirsky (born August 5, 1960) is an American pop music songwriter (including the Grammy-nominated " Tell It to My Heart"), an author, a recording artist, a filmmaker, a political writer and a noted baseball memorabilia collector. Songwrit ...

and Ernie Gold. Swirsky almost did not deliver the song to his publisher after he and his girlfriend decided it was not good enough. The song debuted on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 during the week of October 10, 1987, at position number 92, and entered the top 40 of the chart the week of November 14, 1987, rising to number 39 from number 43. Ten weeks later, during the week of January 23, 1988, the single peaked in the number seven spot. The song was present on the Hot 100 for 25 weeks. In the UK, "Tell It To My Heart" reached number three. It was ranked as the 23rd best-selling single of 1988 in the UK. In 1995, "Tell It to My Heart'" was

remix A remix (or reorchestration) is a piece of media which has been altered or contorted from its original state by adding, removing, or changing pieces of the item. A song, piece of artwork, book, video, poem, or photograph can all be remixes. The o ...

ed and re-released to promote Dayne's ''

Greatest Hits A greatest hits album or best-of album is a type of compilation album that collects popular and commercially successful songs by a particular artist or band. While greatest hits albums are typically supported by the artist, they can also be crea ...

'' package. This version climbed to number 23 on the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

. A

Spanish-language Spanish ( or , Castilian) is a Romance languages, Romance language of the Indo-European language family that evolved from colloquial Latin spoken on the Iberian peninsula. Today, it is a world language, global language with more than 500 millio ...

version titled "Díselo a mi corazón" was included on Spanish pop group Amistades Peligrosas's 1993 album, ''La última tentación''. In 2002, British singer

Kelly Llorenna Kelly Llorenna (born 1975) is an English dance music singer, who was born in Slough, Berkshire and raised in Oldham, Greater Manchester. She is best known as the former lead vocalist for the dance group N-Trance in the 1990s. Their biggest hit ...

released her version of the song as a single. It peaked at number nine in the United Kingdom and number 31 in Ireland.

Background

"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 Glen Cove is a city in Nassau County, New York, United States, on the North Shore of Long Island. At the 2020 United States Census, the city population was 28,365 as of the 2020 census. The city was considered part of the early 20th century G ...

. Dayne's father loaned her $6,000 to create the demo. 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 eight weeks. Rich Tancredi used a

minimoog The Minimoog is an analog synthesizer first manufactured by Moog Music between 1970 and 1981. Designed as a more affordable, portable version of the modular Moog synthesizer, it was the first synthesizer sold in retail stores. It was first popul ...

with a CV Gate Trigger to mid box for the Bass sound, a TX for bells and his

Emulator II The Emulator is a series of digital sampling synthesizers using floppy disk storage, manufactured by E-mu Systems from 1981 until 2002. Though not the first commercial sampler, the Emulator was among the first to find wide use among ordinary m ...

for piano. He also used a

Prophet-5 The Prophet-5 is an analog synthesizer manufactured by the American company Sequential (company), Sequential. It was designed by Dave Smith (engineer), Dave Smith and John S. Bowen (sound designer), John Bowen in 1977, who used Microprocessor, m ...

for pads and an

Oberheim Xpander The Oberheim Xpander () is an analog synthesizer launched by Oberheim in 1984 and discontinued in 1988. It is essentially a keyboardless, six-voice version of the Matrix-12 (released a year later, in 1985). Utilizing Oberheim's Matrix Modulation ...

for horns. 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, and ended up selling 900,000 copies alone. Dayne was nominated for 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 ...

for Best Pop Vocal, Female for her performance on "Tell It to My Heart" in 1988. Producer

Ric Wake Ric Wake is an American record producer who has won four Grammy Awards and two Oscar Awards. During his tenure as staff producer with Sony Music Entertainment he has worked with vocalists such as Celine Dion, Whitney Houston, Lucero, Taylor D ...

said in a 1994 interview with ''

Vibe ''Vibe'' is an American music and entertainment magazine founded by producers David Salzman and Quincy Jones. The publication predominantly features R&B and hip hop music artists, actors and other entertainers. After shutting down productio ...

'' 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...".

Music video

Though the

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a m ...

was very low budget, it displayed Taylor's aggressive and sexy style, showcasing her as the center focus, with two back-up dancers: one of them being "Cats" musical star Jeffrey Pavey, and another dancer on opposite sides against a white backdrop. The video is stylistically similar to the cover of '' Tell It to My Heart''.

Track listings

7-inch single # "Tell It to My Heart" – 3:38 # "Tell It to My Heart" (Instrumental) – 3:15 12-inch maxi # "Tell It to My Heart" (Club Mix) – 6:46 # "Tell It to My Heart" (Percapella Mix) – 3:21 # "Tell It to My Heart" (Single Mix) – 3:24 # "Tell It to My Heart" (Dub Mix) – 5:47 12-inch maxi – Remix # "Tell It to My Heart" (House of Hearts Mix) – 8:43 # "Tell It to My Heart" (Radio Edit) – 3:31 # "Tell It to My Heart" (Dub of Hearts Mix) – 6:43 2007 "Beautiful" iTunes single & Promo CD single # "Beautiful" # "Tell It to My Heart" (2008 version) – 3:41 (Released as the

b-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph records and cassettes; these terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side usually features a recording that its artist, producer, or record compan ...

of "

Beautiful Beautiful, an adjective used to describe things as possessing beauty, may refer to: Film and theater * ''Beautiful'' (2000 film), an American film directed by Sally Field * ''Beautiful'' (2008 film), a South Korean film directed by Juhn Jai-h ...

" on U.S.

iTunes iTunes () is a software program that acts as a media player, media library, mobile device management utility, and the client app for the iTunes Store. Developed by Apple Inc., it is used to purchase, play, download, and organize digital mul ...

and promotional CD single)

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Cover versions

* In 1993 the Spanish duo Amistades Peligrosas released a Spanish version called "Diselo a mi corazón" on their debut album * A version by

charted in various places in 2002. *Raquela's 2010 cover version was released as a single and ranked at number 12 in the US. * In 2015, the song was also covered in a

Cheetos Cheetos (formerly styled as Chee-tos until 1998) is a crunchy corn puff snack brand made by Frito-Lay, a subsidiary of PepsiCo. Fritos creator Charles Elmer Doolin invented Cheetos in 1948, and began national distribution in the U.S. The initi ...

commercial. *

Filatov & Karas "Don't Be So Shy" is a song by French singer Imany. The song was written by Imany and music by Nadia Mladjao (Imany) and Stéfane Goldman. A remixed version by Filatov & Karas became a pan-European and international hit for Imany and her biggest ...

's 2016 cover has been certified platinum four times. * In 2017 Swedish dansband Highlights released a cover version in Sweden. * In 2019, German

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

band

Emil Bulls Emil Bulls is a German rock band that was formed in 1995 in Munich, Bavaria. The group consists of two guitarists, a bass guitar player, a drummer and a vocalist/guitarist. History In 1995, Christoph "Christ" von Freydorf (vocals) and Stefan ...

released an

alternative metal Alternative metal (also known as alt-metal) is a genre of heavy metal music Heavy metal (or simply metal) is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the United Kingdom and United States. With r ...

cover of the song on their cover album ''Mixtape''.

References

{{Authority control Taylor Dayne songs 1987 debut singles 1987 songs 1988 singles 1995 singles 2002 singles Arista Records singles Dutch Top 40 number-one singles European Hot 100 Singles number-one singles Number-one singles in Austria Number-one singles in Germany Number-one singles in Switzerland Song recordings produced by Ric Wake Songs written by Seth Swirsky