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"Owner of a Lonely Heart" is a song by the progressive rock band Yes. It is the opening track of their 1983 album 90125. Written primarily by Trevor Rabin (who was new to the band at the time), the song reached number one on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 — to date Yes' biggest chart success by far. Since then, it has seen many releases; the original release had Our Song as the b-side, while others had various b-sides such as Leave It, Make It Easy, and remixes of this song.
Standout features of the song include the catchy, heavily distorted introductory guitar riff, which establishes a motif for the song; producer Trevor Horn's innovative use of jarring, heavily synchopated orchestra hits and other high-tech sound effects; Rabin's disorienting, schizophrenic guitar solo, which was played through an MXR Pitch Transposer, which mixed the original note with one a perfect fifth higher.
"Owner of a Lonely Heart" has been remixed several times, most notably by Max Graham in April 2005; his version reached number nine in the UK Singles Chart and the music video is still popular. 808 State also did remixes ('2 Close To the Edge Mix' and 'Not Fragile Mix'). and Kyper used riffs of the song in his own song "Tic-Tac-Toe". The title is also covered by 2 Ruff in year 1998. The song is also covered by Colin Blunstone, backed by an orchestra. Yet another remix was done in 2004 by Deep Dish. The track had also been sampled by the group Dubstar; a sample of the drum fill can be heard at the beginning of "No More Talk" (on their Goodbye album). Turkish electronic music singer Hande Yener has sampled "Owner of a Lonely Heart"s melody throughout her song Hipnoz. Also rapper Rufus Blaq sampled the main riff (but slowed it down) on the track "Make It Hot" from the 1998 album Credentials
The song's falsetto titular refrain is actually sung by producer Trevor Horn as well as (lead singer) Jon Anderson. Rabin also ably performed this song during his 1989-90 solo tour, with a bit of difficulty on the higher vocal range. Invariably, the Rabin-era band performed this song, preceded by a truncated "Make it Easy" intro. Jon Anderson has also performed "Owner", even though Yes guitarist Steve Howe has repeatedly expressed dislike for the song.
At the time of recording, everyone was already ready to leave. As the song was being recorded, drummer Alan White's drums were being taken away, until he only had the bass drum and snare drum. He used these two for the first recording, then played each individual instrument (crash, hi-hats, toms) separately and dubbed them over the original track to make what is heard in the recording.
Cover versions include a soft jazz one by Icelandic duo Kristjana & Agnar on their album Ég um þig (Me for you).
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