Owner of a Lonely Heart

Trevor Rabin first recorded "Owner of a Lonely Heart" at home on a 4-track tape machine, laying down the main verse and chorus riff on acoustic guitar with some vocals. He had written the whole thing, from beginning to end, while going to the toilet in 1979. A developed version with drums, keyboards and a full set of lyrics followed in 1980. After relocating to Los Angeles in 1981, Rabin pitched his songs to labels; Clive Davis at Arista rejected them as too strange, but RCA's Ron Fair called the song a game changer. Rabin instead agreed to form a new band with Yes bassist Chris Squire and drummer Alan White, initially under the name Cinema.

By January 1983 the group needed one more song. During a toilet break of Rabin's, producer Trevor Horn left the demo tape running and heard it. He disliked the verse lyrics but recognised the powerful introduction and strong chorus hook as a hit single, and pleaded with the reluctant band to record it. Horn and Squire made musical and lyrical changes, and it took Horn roughly seven months to convince Rabin to rewrite the words. Horn's contribution to the new verses earned him 15% of the song credit.

Released on 24 October 1983 as the first track and single from the album 90125, the song gave Yes their only No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. Jon Anderson's arrival in April 1983 turned Cinema into Yes once more. Squire played bass on his custom-built Electra MPC Outlaw through a 100-watt Marshall amplifier, using its built-in octave drop for a Motown-style sub bass sound.