Come from the Heart

"Come from the Heart"
Written by	Richard Leigh and Susanna Clark
Published	1987[1]
Language	English
Form	Country music
Original artist	Don Williams
Recorded by	Guy Clark (1988), Kathy Mattea (1989)

"Come from the Heart"
Single by Kathy Mattea
from the album Willow in the Wind
Released	1989
Genre	Country
Label	Mercury
Writer(s)	Richard Leigh, Susanna Clark
Producer	Allen Reynolds
Kathy Mattea singles chronology
"Life as We Knew It" (1988) "Come from the Heart" (1989) "Burnin' Old Memories" (1989)

"Come from the Heart" is a country music song written by Richard Leigh and Susanna Clark and published in 1987. It is most widely known through the 1989 single by Kathy Mattea, released in conjunction with her album Willow in the Wind, though the song was first recorded and released on the 1987 Don Williams album Traces and also released in 1988 by Clark's husband on his album Old Friends.^[2]

The song includes the lyrics:

You’ve got to sing like you don’t need the money,

Love like you’ll never get hurt.

You’ve got to dance like nobody’s watchin’.

which The Yale Book of Quotations attributes as the source for various similar aphorisms sometimes attributed to others^[1] (e.g. Annie's Mailbox attributes a version of the lyric to a combination of William Watson Purkey and Satchel Paige^[3]).

Mattea's single was her third number one on the country chart, spending 14 weeks on that chart including a single week at the top.^[4].

Chart performance

Chart (1989)	Peak position
U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks	1
Canadian RPM Country Tracks	1

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Shapiro, Fred (July 23, 2009). "Quotes Uncovered: Songs and Dancing". Freakonomics blog. The New York Times. http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/23/quotes-uncovered-songs-and-dancing/. Retrieved March 3, 2010. 
2. ^ "Albums containing a track with the title: 'Come From the Heart'". Allmusic. http://www.allmusic.com/search/track/Come+from+the+Heart/order:year-asc. Retrieved March 23, 2011. 
3. ^ Mitchell, Kathy; Sugar, Marcy (April 25, 2006). "Annie's Mailbox, April 25". Annie's Mailbox. Creators Syndicate. http://www.creators.com/advice/annies-mailbox/annie-s-mailbox-april-25.html. Retrieved March 3, 2010. "William Watson Purkey is credited with writing, "Dance like nobody's watching; love like you've never been hurt. Sing like nobody's listening; live like it's heaven on earth." Later, the phrase "Work like you don't need the money" was added, often credited to baseball great Satchel Paige. This poem obviously speaks to a lot of people, because over the years, many others have created their own additions. We think the sentiments are life-affirming." 
4. ^ Whitburn, Joel (2004). The Billboard Book Of Top 40 Country Hits: 1944-2006, Second edition. Record Research. p. 217. 

Preceded by "I Don't Want to Spoil the Party" by Rosanne Cash	Billboard Hot Country Singles number-one single July 1, 1989	Succeeded by "Lovin' Only Me" by Ricky Skaggs
Preceded by "Hole in My Pocket" by Ricky Van Shelton	RPM Country Tracks number-one single July 10, 1989