Heart - Heart
July 12, 2020 7:09 AM Subscribe
1985 was a ridiculously strong year for music. This past week, we missed the July 6, 1985 release of Heart's first album for Capitol Records, Heart [YT playlist]. It was the band's biggest hit album release, eventually being certified quadruple platinum in sales. Side A: If Looks Could Kill, What About Love [video], Never [video], These Dreams [video], The Wolf
Side B: All Eyes, Nobody Home, Nothin' At All [video], What He Don't Know, Shell Shock
B-Sides:
What About Love (Extended Remix)
Heart Of Darkness
Never (Extended Remix)
Nothin' At All (Extended Remix)
Nothin' At All (Remix)
Side B: All Eyes, Nobody Home, Nothin' At All [video], What He Don't Know, Shell Shock
B-Sides:
What About Love (Extended Remix)
Heart Of Darkness
Never (Extended Remix)
Nothin' At All (Extended Remix)
Nothin' At All (Remix)
This is her live in Seattle and she's just... I love her voice so much!
posted by Your Childhood Pet Rock at 7:24 AM on July 12, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by Your Childhood Pet Rock at 7:24 AM on July 12, 2020 [1 favorite]
I read "Heart's first album" on the front page before I read "1985" or "for Capitol Records" and am now mildly disappointed that this post isn't a Dreamboat Annie lovefest.
posted by terretu at 7:40 AM on July 12, 2020 [9 favorites]
posted by terretu at 7:40 AM on July 12, 2020 [9 favorites]
I'm still gobsmacked that this record is their big seller - their back catalog singles are way better than anything on this one in my opinion.
posted by Lipstick Thespian at 8:08 AM on July 12, 2020 [15 favorites]
posted by Lipstick Thespian at 8:08 AM on July 12, 2020 [15 favorites]
This was the album that introduced Heart to a new set of listeners. Before this, Heart seemed to me to a bit old fashioned and stuck in the 70s (which isn't a bad thing unless you're a teenager in the 80s). But between the well done videos and the catchy music, Heart became a beloved band for kids of the 80s too.
My wife bemoans how a lot of 70s/80s male singers can't hit the high notes anymore. My suggestion invariably is to have the band hire the Wilson sisters. Ann Wilson still hits those high notes (see Ann doing a very good Robert Plant replacement on some of Heart's live Going to California covers) and Nancy can outplay most old white guy guitar players these days too.
Nothing At All is still my fave off of this piece and maybe my favorite Heart song. We saw them a few years ago and damn can those sisters still belt out the music.
PS Thanks Hippybear, I love these posts.
posted by ensign_ricky at 8:14 AM on July 12, 2020 [2 favorites]
My wife bemoans how a lot of 70s/80s male singers can't hit the high notes anymore. My suggestion invariably is to have the band hire the Wilson sisters. Ann Wilson still hits those high notes (see Ann doing a very good Robert Plant replacement on some of Heart's live Going to California covers) and Nancy can outplay most old white guy guitar players these days too.
Nothing At All is still my fave off of this piece and maybe my favorite Heart song. We saw them a few years ago and damn can those sisters still belt out the music.
PS Thanks Hippybear, I love these posts.
posted by ensign_ricky at 8:14 AM on July 12, 2020 [2 favorites]
my early and middle teen years coincided with Heart being a Vancouver based band, and the best rock outfit in town. To this day, I rate a certain Grade Nine school dance as one of the best live gigs I've ever seen. It was mostly covers but they were the right covers and the band delivered them with a power and finesse that was miles beyond what all the other local gigging bands were delivering ... and man, that singer* could hit the high notes! Nobody ever did Led Zeppelin as well as they did, possibly not even Led Zeppelin (past 1972 anyway).
As time went by, I saw Heart graduate to first smaller, then larger, then huge venues ... and they just kept on delivering. But this was still the 1970s, before various dramas and divisions drove them apart, effectively split the sisters Wilson (and keyboardist Howard Leese) from the rest of the band, and ...
I'm still gobsmacked that this record is their big seller - their back catalog singles are way better than anything on this one in my opinion.
I don't know if this mid-80s version of Heart were what I'd call bad -- they just weren't what they once were. They sounded, in spite of the prodigious vocals, like any another 80s commercial hard rock act -- a product I wasn't buying anymore.
1985 was a ridiculously strong year for music.
indeed
* Ann wasn't in the band at this point.
posted by philip-random at 8:31 AM on July 12, 2020 [5 favorites]
As time went by, I saw Heart graduate to first smaller, then larger, then huge venues ... and they just kept on delivering. But this was still the 1970s, before various dramas and divisions drove them apart, effectively split the sisters Wilson (and keyboardist Howard Leese) from the rest of the band, and ...
I'm still gobsmacked that this record is their big seller - their back catalog singles are way better than anything on this one in my opinion.
I don't know if this mid-80s version of Heart were what I'd call bad -- they just weren't what they once were. They sounded, in spite of the prodigious vocals, like any another 80s commercial hard rock act -- a product I wasn't buying anymore.
1985 was a ridiculously strong year for music.
indeed
* Ann wasn't in the band at this point.
posted by philip-random at 8:31 AM on July 12, 2020 [5 favorites]
This album was transformative for me. I still go back to it once in a while. All the feels. :)
posted by Citrus at 8:32 AM on July 12, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by Citrus at 8:32 AM on July 12, 2020 [1 favorite]
ensign_ricky, I'm with you - I think Nothing at All is one of my favorite power pop songs from the 80s and certainly from Heart at the time.
posted by conscious matter at 8:53 AM on July 12, 2020
posted by conscious matter at 8:53 AM on July 12, 2020
I just listened twice to that extended remix of Nothing at All. For me it's one of the near-perfect singles. Thanks so much, hippybear.
posted by conscious matter at 9:05 AM on July 12, 2020
posted by conscious matter at 9:05 AM on July 12, 2020
@conscious matter - the Nothin' at All remixes are really interesting. There's the one I hear all the time (and always thought of it as being the "original") that has the extra bit of Ann singing at the beginning. Apparently the original original is the less complex version. Both are great and I'm exploring other remixes and live versions. What an interesting song. Yes, power pop but sometimes you just want a familiar catchy song instead of something new.
posted by ensign_ricky at 9:12 AM on July 12, 2020
posted by ensign_ricky at 9:12 AM on July 12, 2020
If you like that sort of thing, and I think you do, their autobiography is a good read.
posted by signal at 12:08 PM on July 12, 2020
posted by signal at 12:08 PM on July 12, 2020
I just had a fun email conversation with a music writer pal about Heart. One bizarre bit of trivia I came away with was this surprising fact:
As a band, they (which really means the Wilson sisters) really wrote most of their own material -- until this record. This time around, the sisters (sometimes credited as "Connie," a pseudonym that included Sue Ennis) are still writers, but all the hits except "Never" came from other pens -- most notably on "These Dreams," which has Bernie Taupin's name on it (along with the war criminal responsible for Starship's "We Built This City"). They didn't write "What About Love" or "Nothin' At All," either.
On the followup record, 1987's Bad Animals, the story is the same except with fewer hits. "Alone" is by Tom Kelly and Billy Steinberg -- and it's a cover twice over. The songwriters released it as the band I-Ten in 1983, and between that release and Heart's recording it was on TV sung by John Stamos. Ooof.
The low-Wilson-content trend continued for one more album (Brigade in 1990) before they returned to form in '93 with Desire Walks On, but by then their big sales were behind them. They'd sold well before, but Heart and its two follow-ups were all multiplatinum records, and the first two had serious hits on them. This success was enormous compared to the 1970s.
In retrospect you could ask "gee, why did they abandon songwriting for hired guns?" -- or even be less charitable and see the 80s records as craven attempts to cash in. I'm not one to cast aspersions on either, and I certainly wouldn't be one to begrudge attempts to make a living and pay the dependents of Heart Inc. But it's interesting that they did this, and then reverted to writing their own stuff once financial security was achieved.
Here's the link to the Heart discography at Wikipedia if you, like me, enjoy falling down Wikipedia holes.
posted by uberchet at 12:20 PM on July 12, 2020 [4 favorites]
As a band, they (which really means the Wilson sisters) really wrote most of their own material -- until this record. This time around, the sisters (sometimes credited as "Connie," a pseudonym that included Sue Ennis) are still writers, but all the hits except "Never" came from other pens -- most notably on "These Dreams," which has Bernie Taupin's name on it (along with the war criminal responsible for Starship's "We Built This City"). They didn't write "What About Love" or "Nothin' At All," either.
On the followup record, 1987's Bad Animals, the story is the same except with fewer hits. "Alone" is by Tom Kelly and Billy Steinberg -- and it's a cover twice over. The songwriters released it as the band I-Ten in 1983, and between that release and Heart's recording it was on TV sung by John Stamos. Ooof.
The low-Wilson-content trend continued for one more album (Brigade in 1990) before they returned to form in '93 with Desire Walks On, but by then their big sales were behind them. They'd sold well before, but Heart and its two follow-ups were all multiplatinum records, and the first two had serious hits on them. This success was enormous compared to the 1970s.
In retrospect you could ask "gee, why did they abandon songwriting for hired guns?" -- or even be less charitable and see the 80s records as craven attempts to cash in. I'm not one to cast aspersions on either, and I certainly wouldn't be one to begrudge attempts to make a living and pay the dependents of Heart Inc. But it's interesting that they did this, and then reverted to writing their own stuff once financial security was achieved.
Here's the link to the Heart discography at Wikipedia if you, like me, enjoy falling down Wikipedia holes.
posted by uberchet at 12:20 PM on July 12, 2020 [4 favorites]
I had a friend who got tickets to a Heart concert in the early 80s and was shocked to realize they were women. He was a big fan of Barracuda and maybe one or two more songs, and just always assumed it was a group with a lead singer like Geddy Lee.
posted by Mchelly at 2:09 PM on July 12, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by Mchelly at 2:09 PM on July 12, 2020 [1 favorite]
It's OK Boomer time. I was a freshman in college when Dreamboat came out. For us fans that discovered Heart in the 70s, the '85 album seemed a little too...corporate. Too polished, all the grit sanded off. When they came on the scene, their music was this blend of Zep and Tull with a little bit of bar band swagger. I saw them in '77 and they made the arena walls sweat and shake. It wasn't the level of mayhem that the upper tier bands could unleash on a great night, it was still an intense experience. Ann was fearless while Nancy floated and kicked across the stage. Some substance addled boys were determined to climb onstage and one of them got dropkicked in the chest by a roadie while Nancy didn't miss a lick. Those were the days.
The Road Home seems to be the album where the sisters found their mojo again. Unplugged and with a string section that was arranged by John Paul Jones, they found some soul that got waylaid along the way. And with Jupiter's Darling in 2004, they started to make interesting albums again.
posted by Ber at 3:14 PM on July 12, 2020 [3 favorites]
The Road Home seems to be the album where the sisters found their mojo again. Unplugged and with a string section that was arranged by John Paul Jones, they found some soul that got waylaid along the way. And with Jupiter's Darling in 2004, they started to make interesting albums again.
posted by Ber at 3:14 PM on July 12, 2020 [3 favorites]
Yeah, the “let’s sell records” albums starting with 1985 were definitely stylistically different, too.
posted by uberchet at 4:23 PM on July 12, 2020
posted by uberchet at 4:23 PM on July 12, 2020
Ann Wilson is in Fast Times at Ridgemont High!
posted by Chrysostom at 6:34 PM on July 12, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by Chrysostom at 6:34 PM on July 12, 2020 [2 favorites]
13 year old me wasn't prepared for how much I'd love this album, it's competitor for heavy rotaion, Theater of Pain, didn't stand a chance.
posted by nenequesadilla at 10:26 PM on July 12, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by nenequesadilla at 10:26 PM on July 12, 2020 [1 favorite]
Heart was one many artists that were great in the '70s and not-so-great to sucky in the '80s. Despite several great songs on this album.
posted by kirkaracha at 12:43 AM on July 13, 2020
posted by kirkaracha at 12:43 AM on July 13, 2020
Help me with the third entry on this particular ~vibe~.
this Heart album to 70's Heart
90125 to 70's Yes
...?
posted by bartleby at 2:37 AM on July 13, 2020
this Heart album to 70's Heart
90125 to 70's Yes
...?
posted by bartleby at 2:37 AM on July 13, 2020
Invisible Touch to 70's Genesis
posted by Daily Alice at 5:11 AM on July 13, 2020 [4 favorites]
posted by Daily Alice at 5:11 AM on July 13, 2020 [4 favorites]
Ann Wilson is in Fast Times at Ridgemont High!Interesting. Nancy didn't marry Crowe until 1986, i.e. 4 years later.
posted by uberchet at 5:46 AM on July 13, 2020
Um, it was Nancy driving that sweet ‘vette in Fast Times.
posted by JoeZydeco at 5:59 AM on July 13, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by JoeZydeco at 5:59 AM on July 13, 2020 [1 favorite]
'X Was A Ridiculously Strong Year For Music'
*list of American radio-friendly rock*
posted by GallonOfAlan at 7:52 AM on July 13, 2020 [1 favorite]
*list of American radio-friendly rock*
posted by GallonOfAlan at 7:52 AM on July 13, 2020 [1 favorite]
Dammit, I always do that!
posted by Chrysostom at 8:28 AM on July 13, 2020
posted by Chrysostom at 8:28 AM on July 13, 2020
Help me with the third entry on this particular ~vibe~.
Mr Roboto to early 70s Styx
It's Hard vs My Generation
posted by hanov3r at 8:39 AM on July 13, 2020 [1 favorite]
Mr Roboto to early 70s Styx
It's Hard vs My Generation
posted by hanov3r at 8:39 AM on July 13, 2020 [1 favorite]
i hate 80s heart almost as much as i love 70s heart
posted by entropicamericana at 11:49 AM on July 13, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by entropicamericana at 11:49 AM on July 13, 2020 [1 favorite]
"Before this, Heart seemed to me to a bit old fashioned and stuck in the 70s"
Their previous album, Passionworks, was nearly as slick as Heart but sold zilch. The records prior to that, from Dog & Butterfly through to Private Audition, got progressively stale and flaccid.
posted by Jessica Savitch's Coke Spoon at 12:22 PM on July 13, 2020
Their previous album, Passionworks, was nearly as slick as Heart but sold zilch. The records prior to that, from Dog & Butterfly through to Private Audition, got progressively stale and flaccid.
posted by Jessica Savitch's Coke Spoon at 12:22 PM on July 13, 2020
In terms of acts that (sort of) got started in the 70s but had big 80s second acts to their fame, Heart is up there with Aerosmith and Elton John, and all three had very different sounds from their original heydays, but as long as you're not strictly dedicated to the older stuff, the new stuff is good, just different. (WRT Sir Elton, I like "Nikita" just about as much as any of his older hits, with the possible exception of "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me".)
posted by Halloween Jack at 2:18 PM on July 13, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by Halloween Jack at 2:18 PM on July 13, 2020 [1 favorite]
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posted by Your Childhood Pet Rock at 7:21 AM on July 12, 2020 [10 favorites]