Songfacts®:

• Cass McCombs recorded this song as a sincere and touching yet nuanced memorial to several friends he's lost. "This song is about loss, but it's also about degrees of loss," he told Uncut magazine. "There's the reality of losing people, but also some people, very close friends, have disappeared in other ways, due to other forms of loss."
• As he wrote this song, McCombs thought of himself and his fallen comrades as old particles. "That for this moment we collide, and then these particles break apart and form new particle alliances," he said. "There's sadness to that, that kind of loss, but of course, we have our memories. I mean, that helps me."
• "Belong To Heaven" was the first song McCombs shared from 10th studio album Heartmind. McCombs recorded the album over a period of several years in Brooklyn, New York, and Burbank, California.
• McCombs dedicated Heartmind to three of his lost friends: Neal Casal, Chet "JR" White of the band Girls, and Sam Jayne. "I made this album as a way to handle the loss of some close friends," he said. "Their memories guided me throughout and hopefully they live through the music. Strange to realize, it wasn't them who were lost, it was me."
• McCombs co-produced "Belong To Heaven" with Ariel Rechtshaid. The producer's collaboration with the singer began with 2009's Catacombs. Rob Schnapf (who previously produced McCombs' 2016 album Mangy Love) mixed the song along with the rest of the record.
• Ariel Rechtshaid's girlfriend, Haim's Danielle Haim, played drums and timpani on the track. She also sang harmony vocals along with the folk-rock duo Chapin Sisters.