Chart entered : 29 March 1986
Chart peak ; 62 ( 8 on reissue in 1988 )
Number of hits : 12
This lot had enjoyed moderate success in the album charts going right back to their debut album but it took them over a decade to make a mark on the singles chart.
Their story began way back in the early seventies ( the exact year is disputed ) when Ann Wilson , living in Seattle but born in California in 1950 , joined a local band Hocus Pocus ( formerly White Heart ) with a guitarist called Rob Fisher. His brother Mike was a Vietnam draft dodger exiled in Canada. Ann met him during a clandestine visit to his family and Followed him back to Canada . Roger and bassist Steve Fossen followed suit and they re-formed the band there as Heart with Mike as manager. In 1974 Ann's younger sister Nancy joined. She and Ann had previously had their own harmony outfit The Viewpoints. Nancy was an accomplished acoustic guitarist and joined on the understanding that their music embraced those skills. She and Roger soon became an item. The band had hitherto been playing crowd-pleasing covers but now Nancy and Anne set about writing original material together.
Ann's vocal skills attracted the attention of Mushroom Records's Mike Flicker who recognised that he had to sign the whole band to get her on board. Their first single, in Canada only in April 1975 , " How Deep It Goes " was written by Ann, seemingly inspired by Mike Fisher's comings and goings. It's a melodic folk rock number with Ann showing her talent as a flautist in the middle eight and coda. It failed to make the charts. In June they tried again with "Magic Man" a Southern boogie tune with a simple but effective prodding bass line. Ann sings about losing her virginity with total vocal assurance. It reached number 25 in Canada.
The band then released their first LP "Dreamboat Annie" in August. The album's an impressive debut showcasing a broad musical sweep from the evocative folk rock of "Soul of the Sea" to full on metal with "Sing Child Sing". It also demonstrate's Ann's astonishing vocal range effortlessly switching from Grace Slick pyrotechnics to Karen Carpenter warmth and able to stand comparison with both of them. The album's title does hint at her Achilles heel, the over-use of poetic metaphors, particularly for sex , in her lyrics which sometimes blunts their attack. Flicker produced with help from his former school mate Howard Leese who then joined the band as an additional guitarist and keyboard player. Session drummer Mike Derosier was also added to the line up around this time.
The third single from the album " Crazy On You" consolidated their success in Canada. It gives more prominence to Nancy's acoustic guitar work which sounds strikingly similar to Johnny Marr's on Bigmouth Strikes Again but that's overshadowed by an astonishing vocal from Ann who swoops down the octaves from feline heights to a Sinead O Connor style rasp with supernatural ease.
While the album was selling steadily in Canada, Mushroom were working hard to break the band in the U.S. It paid off as "Crazy On You" got to number 35 in the spring of 1976 then "Magic Man" made number 9 in the summer. A fourth single "Dreamboat Annie" a gentle folk rock number got to number 42 in the autumn. The album eventually reached number 7 and went platinum. At the end of the year they visited Europe and appeared on The Old Grey Whistle Test. As a result the album reached 36 in the UK.
The group were now hot property and began to chafe at the contract they had signed with Mushroom. Flicker, caught between two stools , sided with the band. The head of the label Shelley Siegel then enraged the band by putting an ad in Rolling Stone using a similar bare-shouldered shot of the sisters to the one on the album cover under the suggestive headline "It Was Only Our First Time". The band's response was to move labels to Portrait on the grounds that Flicker's production was stipulated in the contract so his departure made it null and void.
The band had five new songs nearly complete at the time. Siegel released these along with a previous B-side and two live covers recorded in Seattle as their second album "Magazine " in April 1977. With a new album ready to go for Portrait the band obtained an injunction forcing its withdrawal.
They then released their new single "Barracuda" directly fuelled by their rage at the lesbian incest suggestion. Sarcastically packaged in a sleeve which placed their fully clothed head and shoulders in a heart-shaped frame, it's much harder edged than their previous singles with a galloping dirty bass and high pitched vocal from Anne that makes them sound like near-compatriots Rush. It reached number 11 in the US and was a hit in much of Europe though not of course here.
The album "Little Queen" shortly followed. "Barracuda" apart, it's not as strong a set as their debut which isn't surprising given the circumstances. The guys in the band had more of a hand in the songwriting which probably contributed to it being less distinctive. The lengthy closing track "Go On Cry" suggests that the Wilson sisters had worn their copies of Dark Side of the Moon pretty thin. Nevertheless the album performed as well as its predecessor ( number 34 in the UK ) and the subsequent singles , the turgid "Little Queen" and sprightlier "Kick It Out " made the US chart albeit peaking in lowly positions.
Heart then received the unwelcome news from the courts that they still owed Mushroom another album. Hence they went into the studio for three days in March 1978 to polish up "Magazine" for re-release under the watchful eye of a court official to ensure no skullduggery took place. Mushroom trailed it with a single release of "Heartless" a solid enough hard rock number. Despite Heart's unwillingness to promote this material , the single reached number 24 and the album got to number 17. The follow up single was their cover of "Without You" which failed to chart. Ann's voice is well up to the task but it still seems fairly redundant .
The band were eager to put "Magazine" behind them and released a new single "Straight On" in August 1978. It's a tight rocker with a disco beat and some funky guitar with echoes of Love Is The Drug and the Stones's near-contemporary Miss You. It restored them to the US Top 20. The album "Dog and Butterfly ", on which the Wilsons were aided by an outside songwriter Sue Ennis, was split between rockers on Side One and folksy ballads on Side Two until the two come together impressively on the closer "Mistral Wind". It's generally good stuff and reached 17 in the US though it didn't chart over here. The follow up single was the title track from the more subdued second side and sounds like the girls had been listening to Joan Armatrading recently though it's a decent song with a strong chorus. It peaked at number 51.
1979 was something of an annus horriblis for the band , mirroring Abba as both the central relationships came to grief. The other guys, knowing which side their bread was buttered on voted to eject Roger Fisher from the band making his brother's position untenable. The band contracted to a five piece with Howard and Nancy sharing lead guitar duties.
They re-emerged with the album "Bebe le Strange" at the beginning of 1980. Fisher has a co-writing credit on the title track but is otherwise absent. It's a muscular record with a New Wave influence apparent on some tracks and Ann frequently sounds like she's trying to shatter the glass in the control booth but it's a bit short of memorable tunes apart from the first single "Even It Up" where the "Tower of Power horn players add extra spice to the girls' hard rocking riposte to the Fishers. The album peaked at 5 but , unlike its predecessors, failed to achieve platinum status. The single peaked at number 33 in the US . The next one "Raised On You" a Nancy solo composition with her doing the lead vocal failed to chart. It sounds like a rocked-up number from Tapestry lacking a strong melodic hook. The title track , a drooling homage to an amazing guitar player borrows a little from Zep's Kashmir but has a dash of punk abrasion as well. It wasn't really single material and it too fell short of the charts.
Next came "Greatest Hits /Live" a double album with the records split as the title suggests although there were three studio tracks interspersed with the live tracks, a competent but inspiring cover of Aaron Neville's "Tell It Like It Is" which reached number 8 when released as a single and two studio out takes which should have remained in the bin. The album reached number 13 in the US ( outside North America it was condensed into a single LP ) and achieved double platinum status. The follow up single was a live cover of ( alas ) "Unchained Melody" which proves that Ann could do the business on stage but I still hate the song. It stalled at number 83.
Eighteen months later they resurfaced with the single "This Man Is Mine" by which time they'd disposed with the services of Flicker and shrunk to a trio as the long time rhythm section of Fischer and DeRosio had left after completion of the forthcoming album. The single is a jazz flavoured pop number that was meant to be a tribute to The Supremes but sounds more like Manhattan Transfer. It reached number 33. The album "Private Audition " has a few hard rock morsels for their fanbase but you get the sense that's not where their heads were at anymore with diversions into jazz and overblown balladry. It peaked at 25 continuing their downward trajectory although for no immediately apparent reason, it got them back in the UK charts at number 77. The follow up single "Bright Light Girl" a 12 bar boogie tune worthy of Status Quo didn't chart.
They replaced the departing members with Mark Andes on bass and Denny Carmassi on drums, both of whom had considerable musical pedigrees. Mark had been with Canned Heat in their early days but was best known as a founding member of prog rockers Spirit. He played on their first four albums which all charted in the US ( only his final LP with the band "Twelve Dreams of Sardonicus" in 1970, charted in the UK ) and their biggest US hit single "I Got A Line On You" in 1968. Mark and percussionist Jay Ferguson left the group acrimoniously in 1970 and formed Jo Jo Gunne. Mark played on their eponymous debut which sold well in the US and contained "Run Run Run" an infectious boogie tune which reached number 6 in the UK in 1972 making them classic one hit wonders. Mark quit the group shortly afterwards due to an argument. He dropped out of the music scene for a couple of years before being recruited into the country rock band Firefall. Although they never meant anything in the UK , Firefall had a string of hit singles in the US. Their most successful were "You Are The Woman" and "Just Remember I Love You" in 1976 and 1977 respectively which are pleasant and tuneful but somewhat anaemic, like a blanded-out America . Mark left the group in 1980 following a prolonged period of contractual wrangles and dealing with drummer Michael Clarke's alcoholism. He settled into session work until the Wilsons came calling.
Denny was from San Francisco and was born into a family of drummers. His first recorded band was the blues rock outfit Sweet Linda Devine who released an eponymous album in 1970 before splitting up. Three years later he came to prominence in the hard rock band Montrose . Montrose are chiefly remembered as the launching pad for vocalist Sammy Hagar and released four albums between 1973 and 1976 which were moderately successful in the U.S. charts ( their eponymous debut spent a single week in the UK charts in 1974 at number 43 ) . After a combustible history which saw frequent line up changes Montrose imploded in 1976 after which Denny became a session drummer most frequently used by the solo Hagar and Montrose offshoot Gamma.
If this injection of new blood re-invigorated them, it wasn't apparent on 1983's tepid "Passionworks" . The encroachment of eighties production values ( c/o Keith Olsen ) can't disguise that this is an uninspiring collection of songs. The lead single "How Can I Refuse " is a decent enough slice of Bryan Adams mainstream rock and reached number 44. The follow up "Allies " was written by Jonathan Cain of Journey and is a ponderous power ballad which reached number 83. The album reached number 39.
"Allies " was their last release on Epic ( which had absorbed Portrait ). Relations had deteriorated and the band accused the label of not promoting their last two albums effectively. There may have been some truth in that but for their next album on Capitol it was notable that all the singles were written wholly or partly by people outside the band. How willingly the Wilsons conceded that they couldn't write the big hit singles to restore them to their former level would be interesting to know. They also agreed to an image makeover which had them looking like New Romantics on their next few releases.
Their first single for Capitol "What About Love" came out in June 1985 . Written by Bryan Adams's songwriting partner Jim Vallance and two other blokes it's a vacuous but effective piece of contemporary AOR bombast with Ann giving it her usual gusto. The video makes you wince now with the girls wandering on to what looks like the same set as Duran Duran's Wild Boys video, all big hair and low cut bodices . Ann's ridiculous shoulder pads unfortunately emphasise that she was piling on the pounds. Still it showed a shrewd knowledge of what was selling and reached number 10 in the US. It got to number 14 in the UK on re-release in 1988.
The album , simply titled "Heart" was released a month later. Sidelined as writers with most of their compositions pushed out to Side Two, the band nevertheless seem re-invigorated and eager to embrace the new realities. There's not a trace of their previous folk rock leanings to be heard . The US public responded by taking it all the way to the top of the charts outselling all their previous LPs by some distance. In the UK it had a strange chart career with five false starts before Capitol re-promoted it in the absence of new product in 1988 and it got as high as number 19.
The next single "Never" was written by the girls in conjunction with Holly Knight and Greg Bloch and is in a pretty similar vein to the previous single. However it did even better and peaked at number four, aided by a video which focuses strongly on Nancy and her impressive cleavage.
The third single selected was "These Dreams" . Written by Martin Page and Elton John lyricist Bernie Taupin it was first offered to Stevie Nicks but she didn't like it. It's a soft-focused pop track rather than a rock song and being less demanding vocally it was given to Nancy to do the lead vocal despite a throat infection making her sound a little raspy. It's pretty much all synth making Nancy's guitar hero shapes in the video look rather silly. The lyric about a woman's preference for fantasy is heavy-handed in places as you'd expect from Taupin although they help give the illusion of depth to a fairly slight song. Despite being third choice single from a successful album it became their first chart-topping single in the US and of course finally broke their duck here.
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