Thunder In My Heart

Album: Thunder In My Heart (1977)
Charted: 1 38
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • In this song, Leo Sayer is lovestruck by a woman he met just an hour ago. The voice in his head tells him not to fall so hard for someone he just met, but there's a thunder in his heart that drowns it out. He's under the influence of other weather metaphors as well: There's a storm in his soul and his love falls like rain.
  • Sayer wrote this with Tom Snow, an American who went on to write the hits "Let's Hear It For The Boy" (Deniece Williams) and "You" (Rita Coolidge). "Thunder In My Heart" was Snow's first hit as a writer.
  • Sayer was at the tail end of a hot streak when he released this song. His 1976 album Endless Flight, produced by Richard Perry, had two #1 US hits: "When I Need You" and "You Make Me Feel Like Dancing." Perry produced his next album, Thunder In My Heart, and this title track was released as the first single. With a disco sound fit for the times, it went to #38. Sayer's next single, "Easy to Love," went to #36, and then his hits dried up for a while. He got back in form with "More Than I Can Say" in 1980.
  • "Thunder In My Heart" became a UK #1 hit in 2006 when it was remixed by DJ Meck (Craig Dimech), who found a vinyl copy of Sayer's original in a Los Angeles record store and decided to turn it into a dance mix. DJs like Fatboy Slim started playing the track, unaware it was a Sayer song.
  • Sayer gave his blessing for the remix. In the London Times, February 13, 2006, he said: "He's changed it completely, yet kept all of its integrity. They said I'd be the kiss of death. All those DJs wouldn't touch the thing with a barge pole."

Comments: 2

  • Elia from Oswestry, WalesJust terrific, great remix too!!
  • Nelson from MelbourneGreat track this, tremendously underrated. Meck remixed this song in 2006 and called it 'Thunder In My Heart Again'.
see more comments

Editor's Picks

Subversive Songs Used To Sell

Subversive Songs Used To SellSong Writing

Songs about drugs, revolution and greed that have been used in commercials for sneakers, jeans, fast food, cruises and cars.

Rock Revenge Songs

Rock Revenge SongsMusic Quiz

John Lennon, Paul Simon and Lynyrd Skynyrd are some of the artists who have written revenge songs. Do you know who they wrote them about?

90s Metal

90s MetalFact or Fiction

Test your metal - Priest, Maiden, and Beavis and Butt-head show up in this one.

Into The Great Wide Open: Made-up Musicians

Into The Great Wide Open: Made-up MusiciansSong Writing

Eddie (played by Johnny Depp in the video) found fame fleeting, but Chuck Berry's made-up musician fared better.

Janis Ian

Janis IanSongwriter Interviews

One of the first successful female singer-songwriters, Janis had her first hit in 1967 at age 15.

Female Singers Of The 90s

Female Singers Of The 90sMusic Quiz

The ladies who ruled the '90s in this quiz.