“Closer to the Heart” by Rush

Rush put "Closer to the Heart" out in October 1977 as the first single from A Farewell to Kings, and it's the band at their most compact and courtly. Alex Lifeson's classical and acoustic guitars ring out beside the electric, Neil Peart decorates the beat with tubular bells, temple blocks and wind chimes, and Geddy Lee lays Minimoog and bass pedals under his high, clear vocal. Terry Brown produced it with the band.

Peart wrote the words with his friend Peter Talbot, the first outsider ever to share a Rush songwriting credit, while Lee and Lifeson wrote the music. It gave the band their first hit single in Britain, reaching 36 there early in 1978, and Cash Box heard Led Zeppelin in its shape and in Lee's turn at the microphone. A live take from Exit...Stage Left went out as a single in 1981, and in 2010 the song entered the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.