Springfield performed "State of the Heart" at a Live Aid concert in Philadelphia at JFK Stadium on 13 July 1985.

In 1980 writer Eric McCusker was signed with Warner Chappell to write songs to sell to other people.

In 2015 he explained "I didn’t think Mondo Rock would be interested in a ballad, we were playing fairly full on rockier stuff.

So the concept of not having a middle where it gets big and fills up, it sort of emptied out and took the emphasis to the bottom end with the bass playing.

I thought it was a really interesting thing and then Rick Springfield recorded that song and got completely rid of that and wrote a vocal bridge for it … it was like … coward.