Songfacts®:

• Ellen Foley, famous for performing in Hair on Broadway and for frustrating Meat Loaf in "Paradise by the Dashboard Light," had an impressive backing band for her second solo album, Spirit Of St. Louis. She was dating Mick Jones of The Clash as the time, and Jones played on the album along with his bandmates: Joe Strummer, Paul Simonon and Topper Headon.
  
  Strummer and Jones also wrote several songs on the album, including "Torchlight," which Foley sings as a duet with Jones.
• In this song, Foley and Jones pledge their support for each other, promising to help each other see through the dark by torchlight. Foley doesn't think of it as a love song, but a song about hope and friendship.
• Foley made a video for this song that shows her running through the woods at night and arriving at a bonfire, where she dances by torchlight. Foley was an accomplished actress, so she could pull it off.
  
  Most American artists didn't make videos in 1981, but Foley was targeted to Europe, where music videos were a big promotional tour. Another American artist who made videos pre-MTV was Meat Loaf, whom she performed with in the '70s.
• Mick Jones produced this track. On the album, he's listed as "My Boyfriend."
• That's a marimba playing throughout the song, giving in a buoyant sound. "The marimba on 'Torchlight' hits me right in the heart," Foley told Songfacts.
• This wasn't the first duet between Ellen Foley and Mick Jones: They paired up on the Clash song "Hitsville UK," released on their Sandinista! album in 1980.
• Spirit Of St. Louis was Ellen Foley's second solo album; she was born and raised in St. Louis, then moved to New York City. It charted in the UK but not in America, where she never broke through as a solo artist. In that country, she's better known for her acting roles, including a stint on the hit TV series Night Court.