Song · Don Henley
“The Heart of the Matter” by Don Henley
From the album The End of the Innocence (1989)
“The Heart of the Matter” by Don Henley appears on 10 radio countdowns from 6 stations between 1991 and 2025. It was first released in 1989 on the album The End of the Innocence. Its best result is #213 on the WNEW Firecracker 500 (1991). In the combined RockLists rankings it is #4,833 indie & aaa song of all time.
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Don Henley's third solo album, The End of the Innocence, came out on Geffen in 1989, and "The Heart of the Matter" was the third single pulled from it, following "The Last Worthless Evening". Henley wrote it with Mike Campbell and J.D. Souther and produced it with Campbell and Danny Kortchmar, and it's soft rock at its most reflective.
It reached No. 21 on the Billboard Hot 100 in early 1990 and went as high as No. 2 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart. It outlived the album's run, too: when the Eagles got back together in 1994, Henley and the band played it acoustic at the reunion concert, a performance left off the Hell Freezes Over CD but kept for the concert DVD.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
RockLists rankings
Indie & Adult Alternative
Classic Rock
All Rock Formats
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1991 | 213 | WNEW-FM | WNEW Firecracker 500 (1991) | 500 |
| 2001 | 1829 | WFPK | WFPK 2001 Greatest Songs of All Time | 2000 |
| 2002 | 232 | 100.7 WZLX | WZLX Memorial 500 (2002) | 500 |
| 2012 | 356 | Big 100 | BIG 500 Memorial Day Countdown (2012) | 500 |
| 2014 | 342 | Big 100 | BIG 1000 New Year's Countdown (2014) | 1000 |
| 2022 | 691 | Q104.3 | Q104.3 Top 1,043 Classic Rock Songs of All Time (2022) | 1043 |
| 2023 | 684 | Q104.3 | Q104.3 Top 1,043 Classic Rock Songs of All Time (2023) | 1043 |
| 2024 | 558 | Q104.3 | Q104.3 Top 1,043 Classic Rock Songs of All Time (2024) | 1043 |
| 2024 | 577 | WYEP | WYEP Best Songs of the Past 50 Years | 1049 |
| 2025 | 619 | Q104.3 | Q104.3 Top 1,043 Classic Rock Songs of All Time (2025) | 1043 |
Also listed as: Heart of the Matter; Heart Of The Matter.
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