Heart

Heart is a rock ^{Rock music} band whose founding members came from Seattle ^{Seattle, Washington} , Washington ^{Washington (U.S. state)} , USA ^{United States} in the early 1970s. Going through several lineup changes, the only constant members of the group are sisters Ann ^{Ann Wilson} and Nancy Wilson ^{Nancy Wilson (rock musician)} . The group rose to fame in the 1970s with their music being influenced by hard rock as well as folk music. After diminishing in popularity for a number of years, the band had a comeback ^{wiktionary:comeback} in 1985, experiencing further successes with their power ballads and pop hits throughout the rest of the decade. By the mid-1990s, Heart left their 1980s sound and went back to their hard rock roots which they continue to play today. Over their four decade career, Heart has had chart successes with a variety of musical styles, ranging from hard rock and metal (Barracuda, If Looks Could Kill, Black on Black II), to folk rock (Dreamboat Annie, Dog and Butterfly), to power ballads (Alone, These Dreams, What About Love). With their latest release Red Velvet Car in August 2010, Heart made a return to their hard rock/acoustic roots of the late 70s.

To date, Heart has sold over 35 million albums worldwide.

Heart was ranked #57 on VH1's "100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock" ^{The Greatest (TV series)} .

 
Origins (1967–1974)


Steve Fossen, Roger Fisher, Mike Fisher



In 1967 Steve Fossen formed The Army along with Roger Fisher ^{Roger Fisher (guitarist)} on guitar, Don Wilhelm on guitar, keyboards and lead vocals, Ray Schaefer on drums. Fossen played the bass. They played for several years in and around the Bothell, Washington area (northeast of Seattle). They frequently played Bothell High School, Inglemoor High School and Shorecrest High School, as well as many taverns and club venues. They frequented the club "Parker's" on Aurora Avenue in north Seattle during the 1970s when it was known as the "Aquarius Tavern". In 1969 the band went through line-up changes (Gary Ziegelman on lead vocals, Roger ^{Roger Fisher (guitarist)} on guitar, Steve on bass, James Cirrello on guitar, Ron Rudge on drums, Ken Hansen on percussion, and Roger followed in late 1972 / early 1973, Airplay on Canadian stations soon picked up, helped in part by the fact that the album qualified for Canadian content broadcast requirements. The album sold an impressive 30,000 copies across Canada in its first few months. In the US, Siegel released the album first in the Seattle area where it quickly sold another 25,000 copies. With two hit singles, "Crazy on You" (#35, 1976) and "Magic Man" (#9, 1976), Dreamboat Annie eventually sold over 1 million copies.

Mike Fisher was able to freely return to the United States with the members of Heart after President Jimmy Carter granted amnesty to Vietnam draft evaders upon taking office on January 21, 1977. By this time Heart had broken its contract with Mushroom Records and signed with CBS ^{CBS Records} subsidiary Portrait ^{Portrait Records} , a move that resulted in a prolonged legal battle with Siegel. He released the partly completed Magazine ^{Magazine (album)} just before Portrait released Little Queen. A Seattle court ruled that Mushroom Records had to recall Magazine so that the group could remix several tracks and redo vocals before re-releasing the disc; Heart had wanted the album taken off the market completely. Hence, Magazine was released twice, both before and after Little Queen.

Little Queen, with the hit "Barracuda ^{Barracuda (song)} " (#11, 1977), became Heart's second million-seller. Ann and Nancy appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone in July 1977 (issue No. 244).

Magazine was re-issued in early 1978, peaking in the top twenty and gave forth the hit single "Heartless ^{Heartless (Heart song)} ". In late 1978, the double-platinum Dog and Butterfly followed suit.


Decline (1979-1984)

After the 77-city "Dog and Butterfly" tour, the Wilson-Fisher liaisons ended. Roger left the band in the fall of 1979 and formed his own band in the Seattle area. Longtime guitarist Howard Leese and Nancy filled the guitar slack and her childhood friend Sue Ennis helped with song collaborations. Still, the absence of Fisher's guitar work was evident in the band's subsequent albums.

Heart then released Bebe le Strange in 1980. It became the band's second top ten album. By the end of the year, the band scored their highest charted single at the time; a remake of the ballad "Tell it Like it Is" which peaked at #8. But with a total of only two hit singles, album sales were considerably weaker than previous efforts.

Following the release of Private Audition in 1982, Fossen and Derosier left the band. Both Private Audition and 1983's Passionworks, (featuring new bassist Mark Andes and new drummer Denny Carmassi), failed to go gold.

In 1984, Ann Wilson recorded a duet with Mike Reno of Loverboy called "Almost Paradise". It was featured on the soundtrack of the movie Footloose ^{Footloose (1984 film)} . The song was a hit on the pop charts, reaching #7, and was a foreshadowing of the sound that would shape the band's enormous comeback.


Comeback (1985–1990)


Heart's first album for Capitol ^{Capitol Records} , simply titled Heart ^{Heart (Heart album)} (#1, 1985), sold 5 million copies on the strength of 4 Top-10 hits: "What About Love?" (#10, 1985), "Never ^{Never (Heart song)} " (#4, 1985), "These Dreams" (#1, 1986) and "Nothin' at All" (#10, 1986). A fifth single, the metallic "If Looks Could Kill" also charted. Commercially, the album was a smash hit that far exceeded all their previous efforts.

In June 1986, Nancy Wilson married journalist, screenwriter and director ^{film director} Cameron Crowe. (She had made a cameo appearance in his movie, Fast Times at Ridgemont High in 1982, in a scene where she was driving a Corvette, listed as "Beautiful Girl In Car".)

Heart's next album, Bad Animals (#2, 1987), continued the power ballad theme that defined much of 80's pop. It also contained a chart-topper, "Alone ^{Alone (Heart song)} " (#1, 1987), as well as "Who Will You Run To?" (#7, 1987), and "There's The Girl" (#12, 1987).

Despite their new success, Ann's weight gain was seen as a liability for the band. Record company executives and even band members began pressuring her to lose weight. Music videos were the primary vehicle to drive awareness and airplay during this era. Ann was usually shown in close-up and wide shots wearing heavy black clothes to hide her weight, and more focus was put on Nancy.

In 1989, Ann Wilson and Cheap Trick's lead singer, Robin Zander, had a #6 hit with their duet, "Surrender to Me".

Completing the comeback was Brigade ^{Brigade (album)} (#3, 1990) which became Heart's 6th multi-platinum LP ^Album and added three more Top-25 hits to its catalogue, including "All I Wanna Do Is Make Love to You" (#2 U.S.). Two other album cuts, "Wild Child" and "Tall Dark Handsome Stranger" were Rock chart hits and received considerable airplay on US hard rock and heavy metal stations. Brigade was the band's highest charting album ever in the UK.


1991–1995

Following the 1990 tour, the Wilson sisters put together an informal acoustic ^{acoustic music} group called 'The Lovemongers' with Sue Ennis and Frank Cox. A four-song EP ^{Extended play} that included a version of Led Zeppelin's "The Battle of Evermore" came out in late 1992, and the quartet performed several times in the Seattle area. The Lovemongers released a full-length album titled Whirlygig ^{Whirlygig (album)} in 1997.

Also in 1992, Ann sang with Alice in Chains on the songs "Brother", "Am I Inside" and "Love Song", from the EP Sap ^{Sap (album)} . When Heart re-emerged with Desire Walks On (#48) in 1993, Schuyler Deale played bass on the album's sessions. (Mark Andes had left the band by 1992). Desire Walks On included the hard rock/metal radio hit "Black on Black II" as well as the Top 40 hit "Will You Be There (In the Morning)" (#39, 1994). For the group's subsequent tour, Heart was joined by bassist Fernando Saunders and drummer Denny Fongheiser. The band offered live acoustic versions of its best-known songs on 1995's The Road Home ^{The Road Home (Heart album)} , which was produced by Led Zeppelin's John Paul Jones ^{John Paul Jones (musician)} .

In 1995 Nancy decided to take a break from music to concentrate on raising a family with husband Cameron Crowe. Ann toured that year with a band that was alternately called The Ann Wilson Band or Ann Wilson & the Ricola Brothers. This lineup included Leese, Scott Olson (guitars), Jon Bayless (bass) and Scott Adams (sax). Additionally, Lovemongers' members Ben Smith (drums) and Frank Cox (guitars, keyboards, percussion) performed in this lineup. They were joined by Nancy for at least one show at The Joint in Las Vegas ^{Las Vegas, Nevada} on October 16, 1995, which was billed as a Heart show and later broadcast by the Westwood One Superstars in Concert series. A videotape of the show was also shown on VH1.


1996-2001

In 1998 Ann toured again without Nancy, this time billed as Ann Wilson and Heart. The lineup was the same as it had been in 1995, but without Scott Adams. This was long term band member Leese's last tour with Heart; he left the band later in the year. Nancy kept busy scoring her husband's movies Jerry Maguire, Almost Famous, Elizabethtown ^{Elizabethtown (film)} and Vanilla Sky. She wrote and, along with her husband, produced the song "I Fall Apart" in Vanilla Sky that Cameron Diaz performed, and also composed "Elevator Beat", a non-vocal composition for the film. In 1999 Nancy released a solo album, Live at McCabe's Guitar Shop. Also in 1999, Nancy and Ann embarked on a tour of their own, this being the first time that they had done so.


2002-2006

28 July 2007
In 2002, Ann and Nancy returned to the road with a brand-new Heart lineup that included Scott Olson, Ben Smith, Alice In Chains bassist Mike Inez, and keyboardist Tom Kellock. In 2003, Heart released their concert DVD Alive in Seattle which has since been certified Gold - Video Longform ^{Music recording sales certification} by the RIAA. The DVD includes such hits as "Alone", "Barracuda", "Crazy on You", "Magic Man", "Straight On", "These Dreams" and many more.

Also in 2003, Gilby Clarke (ex-Guns N' Roses) and Darian Sahanaja replaced Olson and Kellock. These two new men didn't stay very long and were succeeded in 2004 by Craig Bartok and Debbie Shair. (Sahanaja's schedule became very busy after he joined Brian Wilson's touring band, but he returned to play with Heart in 2007 for their "Dreamboat Annie Live" show.)

In 2004 the Wilsons released Jupiter's Darling, their first studio album as Heart since 1993. It featured a variety of songs that include a return to Heart's original sound, as well as a blend of pop and new textures. Stand-out tracks included "Make Me", "Enough", "Oldest Story In The World" (#22 Billboard Rock Airplay, 2004) and "Lost Angel". In 2005 the Wilsons appeared on the CMT Music Awards as a special guest of country ^{Country music} singer Gretchen Wilson (no relation) and performed the Heart classic, "Crazy On You", with Gretchen. Also in 2005 Heart appeared in the finale episode of the second season of The L Word on Showtime (broadcast on May 15, 2005), performing "Crazy on You".

Heart performed with Gretchen Wilson on VH-1's 10 March 2006 tribute to the band, "Decades Rock Live". The special also featured Alice in Chains, Phil Anselmo, Dave Navarro, Rufus Wainwright and Carrie Underwood. Later in the year, bass player Inez left Heart to re-join the reformed Alice In Chains. Ric Markman then became Heart's new bassist.


2007-2009

Heart was honored at the second annual VH1 Rock Honors (24 May 2007), and also performed along with Ozzy Osbourne, Genesis ^{Genesis (band)} and ZZ Top. Gretchen Wilson and Alice in Chains honored the group by performing Barracuda. ] This, along with the inclusion of "Crazy on You" in Guitar Hero II and "Barracuda" in the Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock and Guitar Hero: Smash Hits video game, renewed interest in Heart once again.

In September 2007, Ann Wilson released her first solo album, Hope & Glory ^{Ann Wilson#Solo career} . The album features guest appearances by Elton John, Alison Krauss, Nancy Wilson ^{Nancy Wilson (rock musician)} , k d lang, Wynonna Judd, Gretchen Wilson, Rufus Wainwright, Shawn Colvin, and Deana Carter, and was produced by Ben Mink (Bare*** Ladies, k d lang and Feist). Both Nancy Wilson and Roger Fisher commenced writing autobiographies, but no publication dates have yet been mentioned.

Heart appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show on January 25, 2008 for Ellen's birthday show, and performed "Barracuda". Ellen played an intro to "Barracuda" on Guitar Hero in front of the audience before announcing Heart. On April 9, 2008, the band appeared on Idol Gives Back with Fergie ^{Fergie (singer)} , who sang "Barracuda ^{Barracuda (song)} " in harmony with Ann. In mid 2008, Heart made a U.S. tour with Journey ^{Journey (band)} and Cheap Trick.

In May 2008, Heart performed for an Artist for the Arts Foundation benefit. Performing live along side the band Venice and over 50 members of the Santa Monica High School orchestra The Benefit helped to provide funds for the continuation of Music Education in the schools. The event was filmed and recorded by Touring Video and Post by On the WAVE Productions. The video was produced by Harry Rabin of OTW and can be seen on the AFTA Foundation website. aftafoundation.org

In July 2009, Heart were special guests on 15 dates of Journey' ^{Journey (band)} s summer arena tour. They played at a number of venues, including Louisville's Freedom Hall, Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, the Sovereign Center, Reno Events Center, and Taco Bell Arena. Heart also headlined a series of shows with The Bangles opening for them. Heart also headlined at the Verizon Wireless American Music Festival Labor Day 2009. They also wrote two songs ("Mine", "Civilian") with American female pop rock duo 78violet for their upcoming self titled studio album.


2010 and Heart's Return to the Top 10

In January 2010, Nancy and Ann both took part in We Are the World: 25 for Haiti.

On May 15, 2010, Roger Fisher, Howard Leese, Steve Fossen, and Mike Derosier performed on stage together for the 1st time in 30 years at the historic Temple Theatre in Tacoma, Washington as part of a concert titled "Synergia Northwest."

A new digital E.P. featuring new track 'WTF' was released for download on June 22, 2010, and features five tracks, four of which have been recorded live on Heart's current tour.

On August 31, 2010 an album entitled Red Velvet Car was released. The album contains 10 tracks including a new working of the Lovemongers' song 'Sand'. The downloadable and Japanese CD versions of the album include three bonus tracks ("Bootful of Beer", "Closer to the Sun" and "In the Cool (Listening)"), whilst the European physical release of the CD contains the first two of these as bonus tracks. The album release is being accompanied by a North American tour, which commenced in January and runs until November. European dates have been pushed to 2011 and are expected to be announced in due course. Red Velvet Car debuted at #10 on the Billboard Album chart for the week of September 11, 2010,
making it the highest debut ever for a Heart album. The album also debuted at #3 on Billboard's Rock Album chart.

A live DVD of the 2010 tour, A Night at Sky Church, is set for autumn release, the show already having been filmed on March 5 in their hometown of Seattle.In addition to their own recording careers, the Wilson sisters have played a role on the Seattle music scene. Among the groups who have recorded at their Bad Animals studio are R.E.M., Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, Soundgarden and Candlebox.

"Heart's Heart: 20 Years of Rock & Roll" was the first CD-ROM multimedia biography/greatest hits package ever released.

In 2009 the Wilson sisters were also awarded ASCAP's ^ASCAP in recognition of their 35-year songwriting career.

Heart has achieved Top 10 albums on the Billboard charts in the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, and now 2010.In 1977 Heart's record label, Mushroom Records ^{Mushroom Records (Canada)} , fueled rumors that Ann and Nancy were *** lovers by running a in Rolling Stone showing the sisters bare-shouldered (as appearing on the "Dreamboat Annie" album cover) and suggestively captioned "It was only our first time". When a reporter suggested, backstage after a live appearance, that the sisters were *** partners, Ann returned to her hotel room and began writing the lyrics to "Barracuda ^{Barracuda (song)} " to relieve her frustration. The song became one of Heart's biggest hits (#11, 1977).*1976: Dreamboat Annie
*1977: Little Queen
*1978: Magazine ^{Magazine (album)}
*1978: Dog and Butterfly
*1980: Bebe le Strange
*1982: Private Audition
*1983: Passionworks
*1985: Heart ^{Heart (Heart album)}
*1987: Bad Animals
*1990: Brigade ^{Brigade (album)}
*1993: Desire Walks On
*2004: Jupiters Darling
*2010: Red Velvet Car:For lists of cover versions of individual songs, and of their appearances in other media, refer to the individual pages of the songs themselves. (A list of Heart's songs pages appears at :Category:Heart songs.)


Musical Theatre

The Heart song "Alone" appears in the Off-Broadway production Power Balladz.