Leave It

Album

90125

Label

ATCO Records

Genre

Art pop

Composer(s)

CHRIS SQUIRE;TREVOR HORN;TREVOR RABIN

Entered Chart

Mar 3, 1984

Peak Date

Apr 21, 1984

Released

February 1984 (US) [1

Recorded

1983

Catalog #

Atco 99787

B-Side

N/A

This was the followup to Yes' #1 smash, "Owner Of A Lonely Heart." 90125 was a different sound for Yes, as they moved away from prog rock and toward pop - very successfully. Once the band (and their record company) got a taste for hit singles, they tried to make more, which frustrated lead singer Jon Anderson. "By the time we got to Big Generator (1987 album) I was ready to leave because nobody was happy," he told Songfacts. "We were scrambling to try to make a hit record, and the record company, the management, that's all they talked about. They'd play records and say, 'This is a hit record, make something like this.'" Eighteen different videos of this song were presented to MTV as part of a contest. When the deadline for the entries passed, MTV showed "Version #19," directed by the team of Godley and Creme. In the book MTV Ruled the World - The Early Years of Music Video, Yes lead singer Jon Anderson talks about the excitement of filming the video of "Leave It" for MTV: "A totally surreal sort of video, which I loved. By then, we were number one around the world, so we were immensely famous for 10 minutes. That was it. It was, 'Oh, we're going to be upside-down... that's cool! Let's do 17 versions. Oh great, that's amazing!' So there were actually 17 different versions of this video, which is perfect. Anything more abstract really reaches me, because it's something that I'll remember, where sometimes you do a video, and you think, 'Oh, that looks OK,' and ten minutes later, you don't care. But something that's abstract, you can look at it now and think 'That's a damn good video,' because it is different." Promo copies of the 45 single contained a version with the group singing a cappella. This is one of the few Yes hits lead singer Jon Anderson had no part in writing. It was written by Trevor Rabin, Chris Squire and Trevor Horn, who recorded it with a fourth band member, Alan White, before Anderson rejoined the band. Anderson left the band in 1980, recording as a solo artist and as half of Jon and Vangelis before returning for the 90125 album. According to Trevor Rabin, the prominent group vocals in this song came about after he and Chris Squire struggled to get a drum sound. When they ran out of ideas for the drums, they decided to work on the vocals, putting those on before the drums. As a result, the voices became the focal point of the song, although it took the band weeks to get them recorded and mixed in the song to their satisfaction.

I can feel no sense of measure
No illusions as we take
Refuge in young man's pleasure
Breaking down the dreams we make, real

One down, one to go
Another town and one more show
Downtown they're giving away
But she never came back

No phone can take your place
You know what I mean
We have the same intrigue
As a court of kings

Ahh, leave it
Ahh, leave it

Two down, there you go
McArthur Park in the driving snow
Uptown, they're digging it out
Better lay your claim

Get home, you're not alone
You just broke out of the danger zone
Be there to show your face
On another dreamy day

Ahh, leave it
Ahh, leave it

Goodbye goodbye goodbye bad
Hello hello heaven
Goodbye goodbye goodbye bad
Hello hello heaven

I can feel no sense of measure
No illusions as we take
Refuge in young man's pleasure
Breaking down the dreams we make, real

Ahh, leave it
Ahh, leave it

Goodbye goodbye goodbye bad
Hello hello heaven
Goodbye goodbye goodbye bad
Hello hello heaven

One down, one to go
Another town and one more show
One down, one to go
Another town and one more show

Leave it