"A Heart's a Terrible Thing to Waste" was recorded in the 1990s. The original vocal is still there and the vocal performance you're hearing from John Ingram is the real thing, preserved and built around by The Sonic Travelers, the duo he's run with George Aiello since the 1970s.
The arrangement is classic and it works. Acoustic guitar and a warm keyboard pad open sparse and close. Then the rhythm section eases in. Then the chorus hits and Ingram's baritone just opens up... quiet and confessional in the verses, then pushing into sustained upper-register notes with real force behind them. Harmonies stack behind him. A string-like pad fills the space above. It's a lot, but it earns it.
The electric guitar is doing real work throughout. Slow bends, country-soul twang, melodic fills weaving between vocal phrases. It steps out front for a solo during the instrumental break that says what the lyrics already said, just without words.
Then the outro drops everything. Fingerpicked acoustic guitar, fading. Ingram's voice trailing off into it. Unhurried. Unforced.
