Only in Your Heart

Album: Homecoming (1973)
Charted: 62
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • This song, written and sung by Gerry Beckley, finds him comforting a girl named Mary, telling her to find another man to replace the one she has lost, and letting her know that she has support.

    In our interview with Beckley, he explained: "We had a friend in England, where we lived when we first got started. His name was Hank, and he was having a problem with his relationship, and his partner - they weren't married - was named Mary. And that's the only real connection that I can remember. It certainly isn't some verbatim story about a scenario that was going on, but I just remember how we'd pick up these little pieces from everything that surrounds you, and that was basically the start."
  • A little over two minutes into this song, it breaks down and the instruments come back in backwards. America had just three members (two after 1977 when Dan Peek left), so they would use session players on their albums. On this track, Joe Osborn played bass and Hal Blaine played drums - these guys were part of the Los Angeles first-call team that played on classic songs by the likes of The Beach Boys, Simon & Garfunkel, and The Monkees.

    Gerry Beckley credits Blaine with sparking the idea for this unusual section, since after they had recorded the song as planned, Blaine did a big drum fill and explained that there was more space in the song to explore. "It was just a great moment: Hal doing the big fill, and saying, 'Hey, I feel I can play a bit more on this tune,'" said Beckley. "And then we added to it - we put all the backwards instruments and stuff to make it interesting. But it shows you the kind of magic that can happen given the right circumstances."
  • The backwards instrumentation is reminiscent of certain Beatles songs where they did similar studio tricks - "Rain" and "Strawberry Fields Forever" come to mind. A year after their Homecoming album was released, America started working with Beatles producer George Martin, who worked on their albums Holiday and Hearts.

Comments: 2

  • Gianmaria Framarin from Terracina (lt), ItalyMy take on this one is that it's one of their tracks where their 'Britishness' is more evident.
    The Beatles spring to mind obviously, I'd also add Gilbert O'Sullivan.
    It's a McCartney-esque song and it's also one of my ever favourite tracks.
  • Mary from WaWhen I was a senior in High School my writing teacher has us create anthologies. Mine included this song's lyrics that turned out to be prophetic for me. I left an abusive fiancé for my One True Love of 42 years now! We married in 1980 & just this morning he made me a playlist that had "Only in Your Heart" as the first track. I just love this great song & America as a band. It was fantastic to hear the story of how Hal Blaine & Joe Osborne from "The Wrecking Crew" contributed to creating it!
see more comments

Editor's Picks

Mike Love of The Beach Boys

Mike Love of The Beach BoysSongwriter Interviews

The lead singer/lyricist of The Beach Boys talks about coming up with the words for "Good Vibrations," "Fun, Fun, Fun," "Kokomo" and other classic songs.

Jim McCarty of The Yardbirds

Jim McCarty of The YardbirdsSongwriter Interviews

The Yardbirds drummer explains how they created their sound and talks about working with their famous guitarists.

American Hits With Foreign Titles

American Hits With Foreign TitlesSong Writing

What are the biggest US hits with French, Spanish (not "Rico Suave"), Italian, Scottish, Greek, and Japanese titles?

He Hit Me (And It Felt Like A Kiss): A History Of Abuse Pop

He Hit Me (And It Felt Like A Kiss): A History Of Abuse PopSong Writing

Songs that seem to glorify violence against women are often misinterpreted - but not always.

The Police

The PoliceFact or Fiction

Do their first three albums have French titles? Is "De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da" really meaningless? See if you can tell in this Fact or Fiction.

Laura Nyro

Laura NyroSongwriting Legends

Laura Nyro talks about her complex, emotionally rich songwriting and how she supports women's culture through her art.