Leave It

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title: "Leave It" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1984-singles", "yes-(band)-songs", "song-recordings-produced-by-trevor-horn", "songs-written-by-trevor-rabin", "songs-written-by-chris-squire", "music-videos-directed-by-godley-and-creme", "1983-songs", "british-new-wave-songs", "songs-written-by-trevor-horn", "atco-records-singles"] topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leave_It" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::data[format=table title="Infobox song"]

Field	Value
name	Leave It
cover	Yes - Leave It.jpg
type	single
artist	Yes
album	90125
released	February 1984 (US)
5 March 1984 (UK)
recorded	1983
genre
length	4:14
label	Atco
writer
producer	Trevor Horn
prev_title	Owner of a Lonely Heart
prev_year	1983
next_title	It Can Happen
next_year	1984
misc
::

"Leave It" is a song by English rock band Yes. It appears on their 1983 album, 90125, and released as its second single, following "Owner of a Lonely Heart".

The song peaked at number 24 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 3 on the Top Album Rock Tracks chart. In the UK, the song rose to number 56 in late March 1984, in a run of five weeks on the chart.

The song is the second track on the album's second side, with the instrumental song "Cinema" serving as a form of prelude.

Release

The 12-inch single release (ATCO 0-96964) featured an extended "Hello, Goodbye" remix by Trevor Horn (9:30) as the A-side, with the B-side consisting of the 7-inch single remix (3:52) and the A Capella remix (3:19). The 7-inch single includes the two B-side tracks of the 12".

There were repeated single-issues, most backed with remixes of the song or an a cappella version. The original version was occasionally placed as the B-side of "Owner of a Lonely Heart", and on another instance, the original version was found on a 12-inch single with another A-side track, "City of Love". The song has the distinction of being the only track from 90125 virtually unaltered, in terms of writing, from the version recorded by Squire, Rabin, White and Kaye before Jon Anderson rejoined and, by the same token, one of only two tracks on the album whose credits do not include Anderson.

Reception

"Leave It" has been described as the band's "funkiest" song, "riding out a nimble bass groove, ping-ponging choral vocals, and Graham Preskett's unexpected violin flourishes." Also notable, according to Stuart Chambers, are the use of sampled drum sounds, the "chorale effect’’, taken by Anderson, to a "higher plateau" and the importance of Horn’s production.

Cash Box described "Leave It" as having "a rather unnerving mixture of urgent, albeit contradictory, elements" and said that it starts with "a rich studio chorale intro" and has a "real tasty Vanilla Funk groove."

Music video

The music video (directed by Godley and Creme) depicts the band members standing in a line and dressed in black business suits as their images go through video-created abstract effects. It was one of the first music videos to utilize computer-generated imagery. Eighteen different variations of the video were made (the first one, for instance, simply had the band upside-down, but motionless for the whole song, while the seventh one was just the first one but with only Jon Anderson), with the eleventh one chosen as the "standard" version, and has remained the "official" video. A half-hour documentary on the making of the video was broadcast on MTV in 1984. Also, a marathon showing all eighteen videos, one after the other, was also shown on MTV.

Personnel

Yes

Jon Anderson – co-lead vocals
Chris Squire – bass guitar, backing vocals
Trevor Rabin – co-lead vocals, electric and acoustic guitars, keyboards, backing vocals
Alan White – drums, percussion, Fairlight CMI, backing vocals
Tony Kaye – keyboards

Additional Personnel

Trevor Horn – backing vocals
Graham Preskett – violin

Production

Trevor Horn – producer
J. J. Jeczalik – programming
Dave Lawson – programming
Gary Langan – engineer
Steve Lipson – engineer
Garry Mouat of Assorted Images – single packaging

Charts

::data[format=table] | Chart (1984) | Peak position | |---|---| ::

Live performances

"Leave It" appeared in a similar manner on the 9012Live tour as it had on the album; it was the second song performed each night, with "Cinema" serving as the intro. The song was performed on all 113 shows of the 9012Live tour, but has never been performed by the band since.

References

"Yes singles".
"Music Week".
(8 October 2013). "Re-play: Trevor Jackson on the influence of audio/visual pioneers Godley & Creme".
Molanphy, Chris. (September 16, 2024). "What's 1984 Got to Do with It Edition". [[Slate (magazine).
"Yes Album & Song chart History". Prometheus Global Media.
Whitburn, J.. (1996). "Rock Tracks". Record Research.
"YES | full Official Chart History | Official Charts Company".
[http://yesworld.com/gallery/Singles/leaveit.html Yesworld] {{webarchive. link. (2007-10-30 Yes official website, retrieved 2 February 2007.)
Songfacts. "Leave It by Yes - Songfacts".
Reed, Ryan. (4 December 2018). "All 183 Yes Songs Ranked Worst to Best".
Chambers, Stuart. (2002). "Yes: An Endless Dream of '70s, '80s and '90s Rock Music : an Unauthorized Interpretative History in Three Phases".
(25 February 1984). "Reviews".
(16 August 2018). "Yes - 1984 MTV Special: Making of the "Leave It" Music Videos". YouTube.
[http://forgottenyesterdays.com/search.asp?mType=7&q=3&sType=2&stime=0&searchq=Leave%20It&alltime=00/00/0000&tname=1&SortBy=tDate&so=asc&memid=0&ssub=0&graphictype=0 Forgotten Yesterdays] Yes tour log, retrieved 2 February 2007

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