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Released as the fourth single from Ingram's 1989 album It's Real, "I Don't Have the Heart" reached the top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart on October 20, 1990. The ballad remained at No. 1 for one week, and became his final Top 40 hit. Singer Stacy Lattisaw recorded the song as well, and her version was released on Motown Records at the same time as Ingram's, although it was not as commercially successful.
Composition
"I Don't Have The Heart" was the first song that the duo of Allan Rich and Jud Friedman created together. Introduced by head of Peermusic Kathy Spanberger, Rich had already written the first verse and chorus of the song. Inspired by what he heard Friedman invited Rich over to his apartment in L.A. to finish the lyrics. Together they wrote the second verse and the bridge.
Speaking about the strength of Rich's lyrics, Friedman told Songwriting Magazine, “Allan says he’s not a poetic lyricist, and he’s not a flowery lyricist. He is very conversational, but in a good way, and that has its own poetry. It’s the poetry of reality and the poetry of life and interactions. And the thing about I Don’t Have The Heart, among many brilliant things about Allan’s idea for the song, is it’s an example of taking a phrase that’s very well known, ‘I don’t have the heart,’ and flipping it. ‘I don’t have the heart to hurt you but I don’t have the heart to love you.’ He used it in two different ways, and that was poetic. We’ve all been there, sometimes wearing one of the shoes and sometimes wearing the other.”
