The band Heart is known to most of us simply as Ann and Nancy Wilson, plus a bunch of dudes. In fact, the dudes came first, back when they were a Seattle-area band called the Army. The Wilson sisters would join around the time the band relocated to the Vancouver area (following the brother of guitarist Roger Fisher, who had slipped north to dodge the draft).
The reformed band played a brand of mainstream hard rock, with touches of folk influence that emerged in the frequent quieter passages of acoustic guitar and gentle singing. And in a field dominated by testosterone, Heart was a breath of fresh air. They could rock with the best of them, and play it sweet, too. Their place in rock history is secure not only because they were the first hard rock band fronted by women, but also because they were good at it.
Heart would reach their peak commercial success in the ‘80s, but as far as I’m concerned, they were at their best back in the ‘70s, when they looked like they wandered off from some Renaissance Fair somewhere.
This LP-length playlist collects the best tracks from their first two albums, and is about as good a sampling of AOR ‘70s rock you could find, I’d say.
Cover Art:
- Little Queen: Source, Discogs.com, Fair use.
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