Queen of Hearts

Queen of Hearts is a country-pop song written by Hank DeVito, the pedal steel guitarist in Emmylou Harris's backing group The Hot Band. It was first recorded by Dave Edmunds on his 1979 album Repeat When Necessary. Edmunds' version was released as a single and reached number 11 in the UK and number 12 in Ireland that year, but failed to chart substantially elsewhere in the world. The most successful version of the song was recorded by Juice Newton in 1981 – her version reached number two in the United States and South Africa. Newton's version also reached the top 10 in Canada, Australia, Denmark, Switzerland and New Zealand. Dave Edmunds version British new wave and neo-rockabilly artist Dave Edmunds released the first recording of "Queen of Hearts" for his 1979 album Repeat When Necessary. The song came out as a single in the UK and was a hit there, reaching number 11. Edmunds wanted to have the single released in the US, but his label never released it: "I was just waiting for Swan Song, in their wisdom, to put it out in America, which they didn't do. ... Eventually, Juice Newton did it with an almost identical version and had a huge hit with it!" Following the Newton version, Edmunds felt uncomfortable performing the song live, as it was now associated primarily with Newton. He commented, "What bugged me is that I can't do it live now! 'Cuz to people it looks like, 'What's he doing a Juice Newton song for?' you know, but it's my song. Maybe now I could, but at the time, when it was a hit, I felt you would feel kinda weird about doing it, 'cuz there's no reason US audiences would know anything about my version of the song." In 1986, a live version by Dave Edmunds was appeared on his album I Hear You Rockin'. Edmunds' version has seen a positive reception from critics. Allmusic named it one of the four "classics" on Repeat When Necessary, while Ultimate Classic Rock named it a "highlight" of the album. Trouser Press similarly named it a "standout."