James Warrenvocalist/guitarist/songwriter
We had had a Top 20 hit in the UK with “If I Had You” and were recording Korgis’ second album, Dumb Waiters. I was living in Bath and I had a piano in the flat and I couldn’t really play it – I’m a guitarist and a guitarist. But regardless, I was fighting for the ivory every day trying to come up with interesting chord sequences.
Basically, I was trying to write a rock song that I thought might get us on the radio in the States because I was convinced that Corgis could have a future there. One Sunday morning, I went to the piano and the first thing that came to mind were the opening chords of what became the verse section “Change Your Heart.” This inspired the chorus line: “Everyone’s gotta learn sometime.” But at first I wasn’t sure what the chorus should feel like. It was drummer and guitarist Andy Davis who suggested keeping the chorus in a minor key like a verse. Then I felt that the song, despite its simplicity, was satisfactorily complete.
The musical vision I had in mind was Paul McCartney’s demo of The Long and Winding Road where it was just solo vocal, piano, bass and drums – which is how we did the original demo in the studio. I think if we had stuck with that, we would have ended up with a great album song – but we owe that to our producer, David Lord, because he saw the potential of the song. He gave it a more stately production with big sweeps of smooth synthesizer strings and the occasional musical hook played by a Japanese koto sample.
The end result looked fantastic and we really started to feel like we had come up with something special when friends visited the studio to listen and were blown away by this completely bizarre and unique creation. We knew then that if ever there was a pop record fit for radio, this is it!
However, two months later we were astonished to see the final track reach No. 18 on the US Billboard chart, No. 5 in the UK, and No. 1 in France, Spain and the Netherlands. I think people look at it as a romantic love song between two people, which is a perfectly acceptable interpretation. But for me, it was an attempt at a philosophical statement of Zen, inspired by the Buddhist meditation practice I was practicing at the time.
Since the 1980s, the song has had a life of its own, with over 50 cover versions to date. My favorite is the dark and depressing version Beck made Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. I have to remind myself that this was something I wrote in 20 minutes at the piano one Sunday morning 45 years ago.
David Lord, producer
We finished the Dumb Waiters album but felt it was a bit short and needed another track. James sat down at the piano and said, “Okay, I have this song.” He wrote a verse that was in a sad minor key but when he went to the chorus, it changed to major which gave it a more uplifting mood, rather than a Beatles sound. Andy suggested some chord changes to keep it in the same simple mood as the verse.
James also wrote a second verse, but no one, including the record company, liked it. I think the record company thought that if they were going to be a hit, they needed a second track. They were really pressuring us to get one. When we wrote a new one, they didn’t like that either, so we went back to the original. Most people don’t realize it’s the same lyric repeated in both verses. Stuart Gordon then added a wonderful violin solo in the middle which was played in one take.
We were fortunate to have Peter Gabriel, with whom I was working, loan us new instruments, as his cousin had become the English distributor for the revolutionary – and expensive – Fairlight computer sampler keyboard. I think at the time it was worth more than the average house in the UK!
The Japanese-sounding hook is played between the verses over a guzheng sample [a Chinese plucked zither] On a very new Synclavier keyboard too. If you play a key quickly, the short string will sound, but if you play a longer note, the sample will have a bend. This became the distinctive eastern hook between the verses. Only four short notes and one long note with a bend. There have been some great covers of the song. I especially like Zuckero one.