Heart
Heart is a legendary band that has been in existence for over 40 years…
Founded in the late 60s under several different names, Heart is a legendary rock & roll band. Since the early 70s, Heart has featured sisters Ann and Nancy Wilson. Though Ann and Nancy Wilson were raised near Seattle, the band found its earliest successes in the Vancouver, Canada area, where they were based because early band member Michael Fisher had dodged the Vietnam War draft and couldn’t go back to the United States. Though the band has had a number of different members throughout its 40+ year history, lead singer Ann Wilson and her younger sister, Nancy Wilson, have been constants. The band is best known for its edgy hard rock and heavy metal style, though they have also done some well-received covers and folk styled songs.
Heart initially rose to fame in the 1970s, declined somewhat in the early 80s, but then rose to prominence again in the mid 1980s with an edgier look and style. Ann Wilson recorded the song “Almost Paradise” for the Footloose soundtrack with Mike Reno from Loverboy. The song was successful and helped revitalize Heart’s career in the mid 80s. During that decade, they worked with professional songwriters who offered them songs like “What About Love” and “Alone”. They were also offered the song “We Built This City”, which thankfully later became a hit for the band Starship.
Heart has continued to make hits into the 2010s and is one of a handful of bands that has managed to have a hit in the past four decades. In the 1990s, Ann and Nancy Wilson founded a second band called the Lovemongers. In 2012, they released their album Fanatic. During that same year, Ann and Nancy Wilson performed “Stairway to Heaven” at the Kennedy Center Honors for Led Zeppelin.
At this writing, Heart has sold over 35 million albums worldwide, had 20 Top 40 singles, seven Top Ten albums, and four Grammy nominations. In 2013, they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Ann and Nancy Wilson channel Led Zeppelin with a cover of “Stairway to Heaven” at the 2012 Kennedy Center Honors.
An early performance of “Crazy On You”…
-Jenny-