Faith of the Heart (Song)

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“Faith of the Heart” is a song written by Diane Warren and performed by Rod Stewart, for the soundtrack to the 1998 film, Patch Adams. Stewart’s version charted at number 3 on the US Adult Contemporary chart and number 60 on the UK Singles Chart. It was warmly received by critics. The song was later covered in 1999 by Susan Ashton for her album Closer and released as her first single in the country music genre.

It was also recorded by English tenor Russell Watson as “Where My Heart Will Take Me” for use as the opening theme to the 2001 television series Star Trek: Enterprise.

Development and release

“Faith of the Heart” appeared on the soundtrack to the 1998 film Patch Adams. It was released on the Universal Records label and produced by Guy Roche. The B-side of the release was the main title theme to the film. The song was released less than a month after Stewart’s separation from his wife Rachel Hunter.

Reception

The song was most successful in the Billboard Adult Contemporary within the United States, reaching third place in the chart. The performance of the single placed it in twentieth spot on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart for the year end 1999.

William Ruhlmann at the website Allmusic described “Faith of the Heart” as a power ballad which is “a standard effort for its genre”. Chuck Taylor reviewed the song for Billboard and said that it was one of Stewart’s “more enjoyable performances in the last couple of years”, and thought that the song could have just as easily been sung by Celine Dion or LeAnn Rimes.

Charts

Rod Stewart version

Year-end charts

Susan Ashton cover version

Susan Ashton was previously known for being a singer of contemporary Christian music, but decided to move into the country music genre after signing a deal with Columbia Records. She developed the album Closer, which featured a cover of the Rod Stewart single “Faith of the Heart”. It was the first release from the album, but was not as successful as the following single, “You’re Lucky I Love You“. She considered between 800 and 1000 songs to appear on the album, reducing the number down to ten.

Reception

Tim Anderson, writing in his Country Beat column for Yakima Herald-Republic described Susan Ashton’s “Faith of the Heart” as “a definite winner” but that it “did take a couple listens to really hook” him. The release of the single by Ashton was predicted by Brian Mansfield for USA Today as being the first of a career that would increase sales for the country music genre following Aston’s previous success with Christian music.

Russell Watson cover version

“Where My Heart Will Take Me” is a reworked version of “Faith of the Heart” which was performed by English tenor Russell Watson as the theme song to the 2001 television series Star Trek: Enterprise. It was poorly received by some Star Trek fans – largely due to its departure from the character of previous Star Trek themes – who created petitions and protested the use of the song.

Development and release

It was the first time that an actual vocal theme was used in a Star Trek series. Watson had been approached by the producers of Enterprise and the song’s writer, Diane Warren. As he was a fan of Star Trek and as Warren had already written a song for his second album, he agreed to the proposal. The song was featured on the soundtrack to Enterprise and Watson’s 2002 album, Encore. The song was re-recorded for the third and fourth seasons of Enterprise. An instrumental version of the theme was played over the closing credits of the series’ first episode, “Broken Bow“, but was not used again in the series. One two-part episode from its fourth season, “In a Mirror, Darkly“, replaced the theme with a different instrumental composition to reflect that storyline taking place in an alternate universe. As of 2024 it stands as the only Star Trek theme by a female composer.

The song has been used on four occasions as the music selected for wake-up calls on space missions. The first was on 16 June 2002 for the Space Shuttle Endeavour during mission STS-111 to the International Space Station. It was again used on 2 August 2005 for mission STS-114, the first mission of the Space Shuttle programme following the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster. It was broadcast to the seven crew of the Space Shuttle Discovery, and had been chosen as a surprise for the crew by Deputy Shuttle Programme Manager Wayne Hale. NASA astronaut Richard Mastracchio selected “Where My Heart Will Take Me” for broadcast on 9 August 2007 onboard Endeavour for STS-118. The final broadcast on board a Space Shuttle was on May 23, 2009 during STS-125, the final Space Shuttle servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope. On this occasion it was broadcast to the crew of the Space Shuttle Atlantis. It was the third science fiction themed wake-up call in a row, the previous day having been the Cantina Band composition by John Williams for Star Wars, and two days prior was Alexander Courage‘s Theme from Star Trek. Watson also recorded a special version of the song to be played for the final wake up of the New Horizons exploration spacecraft on December 6, 2014.

Reception

Following the pilot episode of Star Trek: Enterprise, “Broken Bow“, and the debut of the song as the series’ theme tune, the reception among Star Trek fans was mostly negative. Such was the response, that online petitions were formed and a protest held outside Paramount Studios against the use of the song. One petition stated that “We wish to express our unmitigated disgust with the theme song that has been selected for the new ‘Enterprise’ series, it is not fit to be scraped off the bottom of a Klingon‘s boot.” Actor Simon Pegg, who played engineer Montgomery Scott in Star Trek and Star Trek Beyond later said that he had never watched Enterprise due to the song, which he described as “dreadful soft-rock” and “probably the most hideous Star Trek moment in history”. The song was mentioned in the review of the Enterprise first season DVD set by DVD Talk. It was called “sappy”, and the reviewer said that it “never felt appropriate and serves only to undercut the emotional strength of the images on screen”.

Executive producer of Enterprise, Rick Berman, praised the song, saying that it was a song “that’s got a lot of hopefulness and uplifting qualities to it. And I like it. I’ve met a lot of other people who like it, but I’ve also heard a tremendous amount of banter about people who don’t.” Enterprise co-creator Brannon Braga also defended the song, saying of the protest, “There are some people who love the song and there are people who think it’s cheesy. They came with a petition with 1,000 signatures. But plenty of people find the song very uplifting.” Watson also said of the response to the song, “Something new happens, and people aren’t quite sure of it. But they’ll get used to it. By the time they’ve watched the 20th episode, they’ll be thinking, ‘Well, it’s not that bad after all.”

Live performances

Russell Watson performed “Where My Heart Will Take Me” as part of the opening ceremony of the 2002 Commonwealth Games, alongside a choir. The choir subsequently performed the song at a ceremony to mark the retirement of Bishop Christopher Mayfield from his post as Bishop of Manchester.

Enterprise (Soundtrack)

Enterprise is the soundtrack for the first season of Star Trek: Enterprise. It features the opening title song, “Where My Heart Will Take Me“, as sung by Russell Watson, alongside instrumental compositions by Dennis McCarthy.

Background

McCarthy first became involved in composing music for Star Trek with the first episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, “Encounter At Farpoint“. He went on to work on several more Star Trek series, along with the film Star Trek Generations. He won an Emmy Award for his composition of the theme tune for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. He recorded the score for the pilot episode, “Broken Bow“, with an orchestra on September 10 and 11, 2001. Despite an offer to postpone the recording on the second day because of the September 11 attacks, they decided to continue recording the music. McCarthy described this as “the hardest recording session of my entire career”.

It was rumoured that Jerry Goldsmith would compose the theme tune for Enterprise, having previously created the themes for both The Next Generation and Star Trek: Voyager. This was later denied on his official website, and series executive producer Rick Berman explained that they would be seeking to use “a little bit more contemporary kind of music”.

Release

The album was released in the United States on May 14, 2002 on the Decca Records label. The release was an Enhanced CD featuring the music video of “Where My Heart Will Take Me“.

It included two versions of the title song of Enterprise, entitled “Where My Heart Will Take Me”, which had been previously called “Faith of the Heart”. The song was written by Diane Warren and sung by Russell Watson. A version of the song that had been re-recorded for Watson’s album Encore appeared alongside the version that accompanied the opening credits of the television series. The remaining tracks on the album were instrumental music composed by McCarthy for the pilot episode of Enterprise, “Broken Bow“.

Reception

Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic
Tracksounds.com	(7/10)

In his review for Allmusic, Neil Shurley said that “Where My Heart Will Take Me” sounded better on the album than it did on the television show, but didn’t tie in with McCarthy’s work, whose work he described as an “orchestral tapestry”. Overall he said that “There’s nothing spectacular here, but Enterprise does make a representative and worthy addition to the Star Trek musical canon”.

Track listing

1. Where My Heart Will Take Me (Album Version)
2. New Enterprise
3. Klingon Chase – Shotgunned
4. Enterprise First Flight
5. Klang-Napped
6. Morph-O-Mama-Suli-Nabbed
7. Phaser Fight
8. Breakthrough
9. Grappled
10. The Rescue
11. Temporal Battle
12. Blood Work
13. New Horizons
14. Archer’s Theme
15. Where My Heart Will Take Me (TV Version)

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