Closer to the Heart
by Rush
- 145
- BPM
- D major
- Key
- 10B
- Camelot
- 38
- Danceability
- 12
- Acousticness
Peter Talbot, a friend of drummer and lyricist Neil Peart, became the first non-member to get a songwriting credit on a Rush song, with "Closer to the Heart." The band released it in October 1977 as the lead single from A Farewell to Kings. It was Rush's first hit single in the United Kingdom, reaching number 36 in February 1978. It peaked at number 45 in Canada and number 76 on the Billboard Hot 100. A live version, the lead single from Exit...Stage Left, reached number 69 on the Hot 100 in 1981.
Geddy Lee recalled having to bring it back into the set for the Rio shows because of the demand. He said it got the band onto kinds of radio that would never normally play them, and was as close as they ever came to a pop song.
Rush played it on every tour from its release until the Presto Tour. After that it came and went from setlists. Peart used an electronic drum kit for it in concerts from 1984 to 1994. In 2022 Lee and Lifeson played it with members of Primus and South Park co-creator Matt Stone at the South Park 25th Anniversary Concert at Red Rocks Amphitheatre.
Closer to the Heart runs at 145 BPM, the tempo of dubstep and trap counted in half time, and hardstyle. In classical terms it sits in allegro territory. A bar of 4/4 lasts 1.66 seconds, and a quarter-note delay is 414 ms. It is in D major, Camelot 10B, which shares its notes with B minor and mixes cleanly with G major and A major.
We use multiple sources as part of our online research for the song story including Wikipedia.