The 1982 Hit Neil Diamond Wrote with Carol Bayer Sager and Burt Bacharach After Watching ‘E.T.’

In 1982, Neil Diamond, songwriter Carole Bayer Sager, and her then-husband Burt Bacharach went to a screening of E.T. in New York City. Afterward, all three went back to Sager and Bacharach’s apartment and wrote a song together.

“Hearlight” was released on Diamond’s 1982 album of the same name and was loosely inspired by the film. “We wanted to express how all of us felt about the little alien who suddenly appears in a strange world,” said Diamond of the song.

Come back again
I want you to stay next time
‘Cause sometimes the world ain’t kind
When people get lost like you and me

I just made a friend
A friend is someone you need
But now that he had to go away
I still feel the words that he might say

Turn on your heartlight
Let it shine wherever you go
Let it make a happy glow
For all the world to see

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Turn on your heartlight
In the middle of a young boy’s dream
Don’t wake me up too soon
Gonna take a ride across the moon
You and me

He’s looking for home
‘Cause everyone needs a place
And home’s the most excellent place of all
And I’ll be right here if you should call me

At first, Diamond wasn’t sure how a younger audience would respond to the song, so he played it for his son Jesse, who gave it his approval.

Released in September 1982, “Heartlight” went to No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 and topped the Adult Contemporary chart, while the album also peaked at No. 9.

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Legal Backlash

After the released of the film, MCA/Universal filed 25 lawsuits, according to a report in People, and were investigating 260 more cases against parties trying to cash-in on the E.T. franchise, including a company selling fake dolls in he likeness of the character and bootleg video copies of the film being distributed, along with other unlicensed merchandise.

Although Diamond never mentions any of the characters in E.T. in “Heartlight,” the title does allude to the scene in the film where E.T.’s heart illuminates when he says farewell to Elliott.

Other lyrics are loosely based on the film, including Elliot’s bicycle ride in the sky and past the moon, and “E.T. phone home,” the extraterrestrial’s plea to connect to his home planet.

Gonna take a ride across the moon
You and me

And home’s the most excellent place of all
And I’ll be right here if you should call me

Though vague in its storyline, Diamond still faced a lawsuit by MCA/Universal. To avoid litigation, he settled with the production company, paying them a reported $25,000.

Photo: Neil Diamond on the CBS TV special, ‘Hello Again, May 25, 1986. (CBS via Getty Images)