"Young Hearts Run Free" is a disco pop-funk track written and produced by David Crawford. According to Staton, the song's genesis was a conversation she had with Crawford over lunch in
Los Angeles: Staton – "Dave Crawford was always asking me: 'What's happening in your life'...and I was [then] with someone I shouldn't have been with and it was hard getting out of that...very abusive relationship" "I [noticed] that [Crawford] was taking notes, and he said, 'You know, I'm gonna write you a song. I'm gonna write you a song that's gonna last forever'". In the 2024
PBS documentary
Disco: Sound of a Revolution, Staton revealed that she wrote the song after her abusive ex-husband threatened to kill her, holding her out over the 20-story balcony of their
Las Vegas hotel room. Staton talked him out of it by telling him the hotel was owned by the mafia and he would therefore face repercussions, after which he pulled a gun and threatened to shoot her. He didn’t, and she eventually left the relationship, writing the song about the experience. The song is also referenced in Staton's 1978 single "Victim" in the lyrics, "I became a victim of the very song I sing, I told you 'young hearts run free'. When I didn't listen to myself . . ."
Chart performance Released in 1976 from the album of the same title, it spent a week at number one on the US
Hot Soul Singles chart. It also peaked at number twenty on the
Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. Along with the tracks "Run to Me" and "Destiny", "Young Hearts Run Free" went to number eight on the dance/disco charts. "Young Hearts Run Free" was one of only two songs by Staton to reach the top 10 on the
UK Singles Chart, it peaked at number two behind
The Real Thing's "
You to Me Are Everything". The 1976 single releases had "I Know" on the
B-side. In 1999, Staton released a new version of the song, with a new music video to accompany it. This version peaked at number 29 on the UK Singles Chart and became a top-40 hit In Iceland.
Critical reception Billboard wrote, "A classic
country ballad in a
disco leisure suit, as Candi Staton extols the virtues of romantic independence over a soul-stirring horn groove, while simultaneously lamenting that she didn’t practice what she’s preaching in her own relationship."
Rolling Stone called it, "still one of the greatest, soaring and melancholy, with Staton's vocal almost unbearably felt". In 2022,
Rolling Stone ranked it number 150 in their list of "200 Greatest Dance Songs of All Time", while
Billboard magazine ranked it among the "500 Best Pop Songs of All Time" in 2023. In March 2025,
Billboard ranked "Young Hearts Run Free" number 44 in their list of "The 100 Best Dance Songs of All Time", noting that "under its warmth and sweetness, Candi Staton’s 1976 disco classic tells a darker tale".
Charts Certifications ==Kym Mazelle version==