"Owner of a Lonely Heart" is a song by the progressive rock band Yes. It is the opening track of their 1983 album 90125. Written primarily by Trevor Rabin (who was new to the band at the time), the song reached number one on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 — to date Yes' biggest chart success by far. Since then, it has seen many releases; the original release had "Our Song" as the b-side, while others had various b-sides such as "Leave It", "Make It Easy", and remixes of this song.

Standout features of the song include the catchy, heavily distorted introductory guitar riff, which establishes a motif for the song; producer Trevor Horn's innovative use of jarring, heavily syncopated orchestra hits and other high-tech sound effects; Rabin's disorienting, schizophrenic guitar solo, which was played through an MXR Pitch Transposer, which mixed the original note with one a perfect fifth higher.

The song's falsetto titular refrain is actually sung by producer Trevor Horn as well as (lead singer) Jon Anderson. Rabin also ably performed this song during his 1989-90 solo tour, with a bit of difficulty on the higher vocal range. Invariably, the Rabin-era band performed this song, preceded by a truncated "Make it Easy" intro. Jon Anderson has also performed "Owner", even though Yes guitarist Steve Howe has repeatedly expressed dislike for the song.

The song's music video, directed by Peter Christopherson, received a great deal of airplay on MTV, introducing the revamped Yes lineup and sound to a new generation of fans largely unfamiliar with the band's very different earlier work, which had helped to define the genre of progressive rock. The video begins with a bird flying over different areas and then cuts to an archetypal Everyman as he tries to make it through a day whilst being shocked by pseudo-psychotic flashes of being menaced by the various animals. He is brought to court by government-looking toughs, summarily thrown out of court and into a boiler room where he fights a bruiser, then runs onto the roof of the building. There, he is confronted by the various band members, shifting back and forth between human and animal guises, which drives him to leap from the building. The video then ends with the same man in the same crowd as at the beginning of the video, but instead he turns back, presumably to go home and avoid the day.

Another possible interpretation of the video is that this was the year 1983 and many people were looking ahead to the following year 1984. George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four cast a dark vision of the future, including an oppressive, intrusive government who used the Thought Police to monitor and maintain control of the population. The video brings the audience into that Orwellian nightmare through the life of an ordinary citizen, a man, arrested and brought to "Justice". All the characters waiting in line show resignation in their expressions, suggesting that they've been imprisoned at the Ministry of Love at one time or another and no longer have a free will of their own. The man may be a free thinker thus making, and marking, him as an enemy of Big Brother. The flashbacks and visions of the animals may indicate that he was previously mind wiped and these are side effects of the process. The thought of having to go back to The Ministry of Love and it's tortures is enough to send him into a state of panic and suicide. He wakes up, only to find he's been daydreaming ( or was he ), the impact is enough to turn him around, avoiding what may lay ahead.

Notably, keyboardist Tony Kaye does not appear in the video. At the time of the video shoot, Eddie Jobson was standing in as the band's keyboardist. He can be seen briefly in a few quick shots, but he was not part of the video's "animal transformation" scene in which the other four band members take part. Ultimately, Kaye returned to the lineup, and it is not believed that Jobson ever recorded any material with the band.

The biggest major legacy of the track is arguably the beginnings of ZTT Records and the electronic group The Art Of Noise; as well as being a former member of Yes, Trevor Horn served the role of one of the band's producers during the recording of 90125and "Owner of a Lonely Heart". With him were Gary Langan, J.J. Jeczalik and Anne Dudley, all working with Horn as his production team, in the roles of engineers and arrangers. Taking samples and loops directly from these Yes recording sessions (as well as work done on Malcolm McLaren's Duck Rock), the team subsequently formed the Art Of Noise under the auspice of Trevor Horn, becoming the first signed act of his ZTT Records label. The crunching stabs, orchestral samples and thunderous drums of "Owner of a Lonely Heart" can be heard in the Art Of Noise's initial recordings.

"Owner of a Lonely Heart" has been remixed several times, most notably by Max Graham in April 2005; his version reached number nine in the UK Singles Chart and the music video is still popular. 808 State also did remixes ('2 Close To the Edge Mix' and 'Not Fragile Mix'). and Kyper used riffs of the song in his own song "Tic-Tac-Toe". The song is also covered by Colin Blunstone, backed by an orchestra. Yet another remix was done in 2004 by Deep Dish. The track had also been sampled by the group Dubstar; a sample of the drum fill can be heard at the beginning of "No More Talk" (on their Goodbyealbum). Turkish electronic music singer Hande Yener has sampled "Owner of a Lonely Heart"s melody throughout her song Hipnoz.

Venezuelan rock band Caramelos de Cianuro quotes the main guitar riff of the song throughout their song "Baby Cohete" of their 2006 album Flor De Fuego.

Frank Zappa also incorporated parts of the song into the guitar solo of one of his own songs, "Bamboozled by Love" on his 1984 and 1988 tours (see You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore, Vol. 3).

On Yes' 35th Anniversary tour, "Owner of a Lonely Heart" was frequently played acoustically.

"Owner of a Lonely Heart" was featured on Flash FM, a radio station in video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. The song was also featured in a D-TV music video on The Disney Channel, set entirely to clips from the 1936 cartoon Elmer Elephant.

An excerpt of "Owner of a Lonely Heart" is featured in Michael Jackson's "D.S." from his 1995 album, HIStory. The album focuses on Jackson's isolation after the then-recent child abuse allegations.

In an Episode of The Simpsonsentitled "The DeBarted" Homer does his own version of the song, singing "Driver of a loaner car," while driving a car on loan from a body shop.

Both hit shows Grey's Anatomyand Degrassi: The Next Generationnamed an episode after this song. Both shows are known to name their episodes after hit songs.

"Weird Al" Yankovic used a section of the song in his polka medley "Hooked on Polkas".

The song also appears in an episode of Knight Rider, starring David Hasselhoff.

Mystery Science Theater 3000parodied the song, with Tom Servo pondering the implications of the song (Tom: "How does the (singing) "Owner of a lonely heart" (normal voice) compare to, say, the (singing) "Owner of a broken gas fireplace?" (Normal voice) Or for that matter, to the (singing) "Owner of a perfectly functional cheese slicer?" (Normal voice) As the (singing) "Owner of a lonely heart" (normal voice) how do I stack up against the (singing) "Owner of a pencil?" I mean, come on, Yes!"), then Mike and the bots were constantly assaulted by the orchestral hit.

Cover versions include a soft jazz one by Icelandic duo Kristjana & Agnar on their album Ég um þig(Me for you) and Brooklyn indie band Grizzly Bear on their EP Sorry for the Delay.

The Atlanta-based rapper E-Dubb's debut single "Whooty (White Girl with a Booty)" has a riff that mimicks the Yes song, but later re-released with a similar sounding riff.

The "Class President" episode of Everybody Hates Chrisfeatures this song.

"Owner of a Lonely Heart" was, according to a radio interview with Yes in 1991 (with the Uniontour), originally written as a ballad, not as the rock song that became famous. Jon Anderson convinced producer Trevor Horn to speed it up and add some guitar riffs to make it stand out and be more "upbeat". However, as the next paragraph states, Trevor Rabin had already recorded an upbeat demo version of this song before Jon Anderson and Trevor Horn joined the 90125 project, so this story is probably not true.

An extremely raw demo version of the song can be found on Rabin's album 90124, with a different pre-chorus verse and a jazz fusion keyboard solo reminiscent of Chick Corea.

The orchestra and drum samples were lifted from Funk, Inc.'s "Kool is Back."

Two characters in the movie The Break-Upsing the song at a dinner. The song is included on an album of music from the movie.