Heart - 2006
Sisters Ann and Nancy Wilson were the creative spark behind Heart, a
hard rock group who initially found success in the mid-'70s, only to
reach greater heights after engineering a major comeback a decade later.
The daughters of a Marine Corps captain, Ann (born June 19, 1950) and
Nancy (born March 16, 1954) grew up in both Southern California and
Taiwan before the Wilson family settled in Seattle, WA. Throughout
their formative years, both were interested in folk and pop music;
while Ann never took any formal music lessons as a child (she later
learned to play several instruments), Nancy took up guitar and flute.
After both sisters spent some time at college, they decided to try
their hand as professional musicians, and while Nancy began performing
as a folksinger, Ann joined the all-male vocal group Heart. Based in
Vancouver, British Columbia, Heart was actually formed in 1963 by bassist
Steve Fossen and brothers Roger Fisher and Mike Fisher; initially dubbed
the Army, they later became White Heart before settling on simply Heart
at the beginning of the '70s. After her arrival in the group, Ann became
romantically involved with guitarist Mike Fisher; when Nancy joined
in 1974, she in turn began a relationship with guitarist Roger Fisher.
Soon after Nancy's arrival, Mike Fisher retired from active performing
to become the band's sound engineer. After gaining a following in Vancouver,
Heart was approached by Shelly Siegel, the owner of the Canadian label
Mushroom; augmented by keyboardist Howard Leese and drummer Michael
Derosier, they recorded their debut album, Dreamboat Annie, in 1975.
After selling more than 30,000 copies north of the
border, Mushroom issued the LP in the U.S. where it quickly achieved
platinum status on the strength of the hit singles "Crazy on You" and "Magic
Man." In 1977, Heart jumped ship to the CBS affiliate Portrait,
resulting in a protracted legal battle with Siegel, who in 1978 released
the unfinished LP Magazine on Mushroom shortly after the band issued
its true follow-up Little Queen on Portrait. The single "Barracuda" was
another massive hit, and like its predecessor, Little Queen sold over
a million copies.
After 1978's Dog & Butterfly, both of the Wilson/Fisher
romances ended and Roger Fisher left the group. In 1980, Heart issued
Bebe Le Strange; following a lengthy U.S. tour, both Fossen and Derosier
exited and were replaced by ex-Spirit and Firefall bassist Mark Andes
and former Gamma drummer Denny Carmassi. After 1982's Private Audition
and 1983's Passionworks slumped, the group was largely written off
by industry watchers, and moved to Capitol Records.
In 1985, however, Heart emerged with a self-titled
effort that ultimately sold more than five million
copies on its way to launching four Top Ten hits — "What
About Love?," "Never," the chart-topping "These
Dreams," and "Nothin' at All." 1987's Bad Animals continued
their comeback success; "Alone" was another number one hit,
and both "Who Will You Run To" and "There's the Girl" achieved
considerable airplay as well. Brigade, issued in 1990, featured the number
two smash "All I Want to Do Is Make Love to You," as well as
the Top 25 hits "I Didn't Want to Need You" and "Stranded." In
the early '90s, the Wilson sisters took a brief hiatus from Heart to
form the Lovemongers, an acoustic quartet fleshed out by Sue Ennis and
Frank Cox; in 1992, they issued a four-song EP that included a cover
of Led Zeppelin's "The Battle of Evermore." Heart returned
in 1993 with Desire Walks On, on which Andes and Carmassi were replaced
with bassist Fernando Saunders and drummer Denny Fongheiser. With 1995's
The Road Home, Heart enlisted onetime Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones
to produce a live, acoustic set reprising hits like "Dreamboat Annie," "Crazy
on You," and "Barracuda."
Heart went
on hiatus by the late '90s, as the Wilson sisters concentrated on the
Lovemongers, issuing a pair of albums — 1997's Whirlygig
and 1998's Here Is Christmas. But Heart wasn't completely silent — they
were the subject of one of the better episodes of VH1's Behind the Music,
a pair of best-of sets were issued (1998's Greatest Hits covered their
early classics, while their later years were spotlighted on 2000's Greatest
Hits: 1985-1995), and their music continued to pop up in movie soundtracks
(2000's The Virgin Suicides, among others). In 1999, Nancy Wilson released
her first solo album, Live at McCabe's Guitar Shop, and a year later
penned the score to her husband Cameron Crowe's hit motion picture, Almost
Famous, while Ann Wilson continued to play with others — in the
summer of 2001, she participated in the A Walk Down Abbey Road: A Tribute
to the Beatles tour, which also featured Todd Rundgren, John Entwistle
(The Who), and Alan Parsons (The Alan Parsons Project). Heart returned
to active recording for Jupiters Darling, released on Sovereign Artists
in 2004.
Biography by Jason Ankeny & Greg Prato
(allmusic)
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