Heavily influenced by Journey's 1983 hit "Faithfully", the song was written while Adams served as the opening act on the band's Frontiers Tour, and features their drummer, Steve Smith.

[4] Adams had played over 100 dates with Journey during 1983, serving as the opening act on their Frontiers Tour.

During that time, he and Jim Vallance co-wrote "Heaven", which was inspired by Journey's hit "Faithfully".

[3] Since the recording session for "Heaven" was running behind schedule, Adams called Journey drummer Steve Smith, who happened to be in New York City at the time and he filled Curry's drumming position.

[3] For All Music Guide, Stewart Mason called the song "the power ballad that transcends the inherent cheesiness of the style to become a genuinely effective single.

"[6] Mason also praised the "solid melody" and "appropriately bombastic arrangement...over which Adams delivers his most effective vocal performance ever.

There were two videos, one shot at the Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, and directed by Steve Barron.

On October 28, 2009, over seven years after its release, the song was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for sales of over 500,000.

[41] It has also been certified double platinum by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) for sales and streams of over 1,200,000 units.

An unauthorized remix of the Candlelight Mix was made by KKXX in Bakersfield, California to commemorate the first anniversary of the September 11 attacks, featuring a kindergarten-aged girl telling the story of her father's death in the attacks, interspersed with the original chorus.

While the monologue is based on a true story, the girl was actually the daughter of a former KISS FM program director, who was reading off a script and did not know about the attacks at the time.