Ann and Nancy Wilson, "Crazy On You" era
'Til now, I always got by on my own
I never really cared until I met you
And now it chills me to the bone
How do I get you alone?
How do I get you alone?
I never really cared until I met you
And now it chills me to the bone
How do I get you alone?
How do I get you alone?
—"Alone"
Heart is a rock band technically formed in Vancouver, Canada but with all its members originating from Seattle, Washington - one of their founding members was dodging the draft, everybody else followed, and later they moved back to Seattle once the whole thing blew over. While previous incarnations date from around 1967, the band itself was led by Ann and Nancy Wilson, who have also remained the only constant members of the band's ever-changing lineups.
To Make a Long Story Short: they first got famous in The '70s, largely by alternating folk with hard rock of an extremely similar character to Led Zeppelin, decreased in popularity early in The '80s due to the loss of numerous original members (including lead guitarist Roger Fisher and bassist Steve Fossen) but had a comeback in 1985, largely by moving away from Zeppelin-styled rock into hair metal-tinged pop and synth-laden Power Ballads (most notably the global hit "Alone").
The Wilson sisters also played an important part in the Seattle music scene through their ownership of the Bad Animals Studio, used by key Grunge bands such as Alice in Chains, Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Soundgarden and others like Neil Young, Johnny Cash and R.E.M.. Ann Wilson also contributed vocals to the Alice in Chains EP Sap and later appeared at one of their tribute concerts.
They were also ranked #57 on VH1's "100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock".
Discography:
- Dreamboat Annie (1975)
- Magazine (1977)
- Little Queen (1977)
- Dog and Butterfly (1978)
- Bébé le Strange (1980)
- Private Audition (1982)
- Passionworks (1983)
- Heart (1985)
- Bad Animals (1987)
- Brigade (1990)
- Desire Walks On (1993)
- Heart Presents a Lovemongers' Christmas (2001)
- Jupiters Darling (2004)
- Red Velvet Car (2010)
- Fanatic (2012)
- Beautiful Broken (2016)
Tropes related to the band:
- '80s Hair: They had this during their 80's period. They were hit quite hard by The '80s.
- Alone in a Crowd: "Dreamboat Annie":Going down the city sidewalk, alone in the crowd
No one knows the lonely one, whose head's in the clouds - Casting Couch: The subject of the song "Private Audition".
- Cover Song: "Alone", originally performed by I-Ten.
- Death Glare: In "If Looks Could Kill", with the singer fantasizing that her death glare is intense enough to double as an Agony Beam.If looks could kill
You'd be lying on the floor
You'd be begging me please, please
Baby don't hurt me no more - Draft Dodging: The original founders of this group were Mike and Roger Fisher who ran to Canada to evade The Vietnam War draft. Ann and Nancy were dating them at that time and followed them to Canada. The group returned to the US only after Jimmy Carter issued a blanket pardon to all Vietnam War draft dodgers.
- Fat and Skinny: Just like Cass Elliot and Michelle Phillips from The Mamas & the Papas, Ann and Nancy Wilson provide one of the few female examples of this trope, with Ann being the fat to Nancy's skinny, although the difference isn't as big as with the former ones (in fact, Ann qualifies as a Big Beautiful Woman), and they were about the same body type throughout the 70s and early 80s.
- Greatest Hits Album: The Essential Heart, among others.
- I Am the Band: Ann and Nancy are the only constant members of the band and are the ones responsible for the band's the core sound.
- Incest Subtext: In a rather bizarre invoking of this trope, Ann and Nancy Wilson were rumoured early in their career to have been lesbian lovers. The rumour was started by their first record label, Mushroom Records, through innuendo and juxtaposition including the use of a suggestive photo and caption for the artwork of their first album, Dreamboat Annie, in an attempt to garner publicity and boost album sales. The Wilson sisters were unaware of the rumour campaign being fueled by their recording company. Once they discovered it, due to comments made by a reporter during an interview, they were very unhappy with their representation, and indirectly attacked those responsible in their next album. Ann was so enraged by the reporter that she wrote "Barracuda" the same night.
- This story lingers. To the extent that an English music writer could sneeringly say, in the early 2000's, that Heart's music remains unaccountably popular among lesbians. Another innuendo published in the same paper was that an unfailing sign of a woman being lesbian is that she owns all Heart's albums plus concert bootlegs.
- Intercourse with You: "All I Wanna Do Is Make Love to You" is actually a strange variation. It tell the story of a one night stand between a man and a woman with the Twist Ending that the woman took part in it to get pregnant because her husband is infertile.
- Long-Runner Line-up: Despite being famous as a revolving door band, the 80s lineup of the Wilson sisters, keyboardist-turned lead guitarist Howard Leese, bassist Mark Andes, and drummer Denny Carmassi lasted a full ten years, from 1982 to 1992.
- Ms. Fanservice: Nancy was this during the mid-to-late 80's with Ann's weight pushing her more to the background in music videos and the cameras focusing more on Nancy.
- Old Master: Very much; Ann is 73 and Nancy is 70 (as of 2024). They clearly don't care, as they still perform worldwide and are regarded by many music critics as legendary musicians. Additionally, they were pivotal in mentoring the Pacific Northwest Grunge scene, as they personally lent their studios to bands like Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, and others that would themselves become iconic acts of The '90s.
- Older and Wiser: The Wilson sisters are largely responsible for cultivating the Seattle grunge scene by opening their studios to a few then-unknown bands: Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, and Nirvana.
- One-Night-Stand Pregnancy: "All I Wanna Do Is Make Love to You" is sung from the viewpoint of a woman who invoked this trope, because her sterile husband couldn't give her the baby she wanted.
- Pop-Star Composer: Nancy did soundtrack work on then-husband Cameron Crowe's movies.
- Power Ballad: Many of their songs from the mid-to-late Eighties, the most famous one being "Alone".
- Revisiting the Roots: In the mid-nineties, Ann and Nancy formed The Lovemongers partially for benefit concerts, partially to reclaim artistic control. ...yet the Lovemongers' output is very heavy on covers.
- Revolving Door Band: The band has had six guitarists, eight bassists, five drummers, and six keyboardists. Not even Nancy has been in the band consistently. Keyboardist-turned guitarist Howard Leese was the last original non-Wilson member to depart the band, lasting from 1975 to the band's initial disbandment in 1998. Leese was not asked to return when the band resumed in 2002.
- Rockers Smash Guitars: Guitarist Roger Fisher smashed his guitar and walked off stage during a concert in Portland, Oregon. According to the Wilsons he also threw another guitar at the wall afterward.
- Shoulders-Up Nudity: The front cover of Dreamboat Annie and associated publicity shots.
- Step Up to the Microphone: Nancy sings lead on some songs, notably "These Dreams". In any other band she'd be a shoo-in for lead vocalist but Ann's power and range is legendary - not for nothing has she been dubbed "the female Robert Plant".
- Stop and Go: "Magic Man".
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Several of their songs seem to just be copied from Led Zeppelin - one of the more obvious cases would be "Dream of the Archer" compared to "The Battle of Evermore". This is probably because they were originally a Led Zeppelin tribute band. Appropiately enough, Heart were selected to perform "Stairway to Heaven" when Led Zeppelin were honored by the Kennedy Center.
- Take That!: Ann wrote "Barracuda" as an attack at their record label for starting the rumour that she and her sister were lovers.
- Those Two Ladies
- Truck Driver's Gear Change: "Will You Be There (In The Morning)" does this, though this is atypical of their work, probably because this is a "Mutt" Lange song they felt pressured into recording as he was producing their album at the time.
- Un-person: Mike and Roger Fisher, after a very bitter and public fall-out with the Wilson sisters. Ann and Nancy at first did not want them anywhere near the band's induction into the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame, but grudgingly relented when told the award wasn't just to the Wilsons, it was to the whole of the band's classic line-up. Mike and Roger were allowed to play one song with the group to honour this,note but were bundled quickly off stage after the contract was honoured, and replaced with Ann and Nancy's current band.
