Claim: Heartlight was Diamond's eighth top 5 hit.

`` Heartlight '' is a song written by Neil Diamond , Carole Bayer Sager and her then-husband Burt Bacharach , and recorded by Diamond in 1982 . The song is the first track on Diamond 's 1982 album , also titled Heartlight , and reached number five on the Billboard Hot 100 , becoming his eighth -LRB- and last -RRB- top 5 hit on the chart . The song also spent four weeks atop the adult contemporary chart in late 1982 , and was the last of his eight # 1s on that chart .   The song is inspired by the blockbuster movie E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial , which Diamond , Bayer Sager and Bacharach had all seen together . When the alien E.T. leaves Earth , his heart glows a luminous red , hence the title of the song .   The songwriters were required to pay Universal Studios $ 25,000 for the use of ideas from the film .