Heart, The #76 Artist of the Rock Era, Part Two

 

 

The 1982 album Private Audition became the first not produced by Flicker, another change that proved to be not for the better.  "This Man Is Mine" made it to #16 on the Rock chart, even though it stalled at #33 overall.  

After the album was recorded and became the first to fail to achieve Gold status, Derosier and Fossen were fired, replaced by Mark Andes on bass and Denny Carmassi on drums.  But the group did no better on the 1983 album Passionworks.

Meanwhile, the success of "Almost Paradise", Ann's duet with fellow Canadian Mike Reno, the lead singer from Loverboy, influenced Heart to change their sound and bring in other songwriters.

 

The group changed to Capitol Records for their next album, their self-titled release in 1985.  The alterations in their sound worked, giving Heart the only #1 album of their career and four huge hits.  "What About Love" climbed to #8 in Canada and #10 in the U.S. (#3 on the Mainstream Rock chart).

 "Never" hit #4 in the U.S. and #8 in the U.K.

 

The group then released the ballad co-written by Bernie Taupin--"These Dreams", the first #1 of Heart's career in both the United States (also #1 on the Adult Contemporary chart) and the U.K. and #6 in Canada.

 

The album exploded for five million in sales.  The underrated "Nothin' At All" at #10 in the U.S. was next.  It rose to #6 on the Mainstream Rock chart.

 Nancy married film director Cameron Crowe in 1986.  Heart released the album Bad Animals in 1987, which contained the biggest international hit of their career, "Alone".  "Alone" matched its #1 ranking in the United States and also landed at #1 in Canada, #3 in the U.K. and #6 in Australia.

 

Heart received their first Grammy Award nominations for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal for "Alone" and their entire album was nominated in the same category.  We are not sure where the Grammy voters were earlier in their career!  Bad Animals continued the momentum with three million in sales.  "Who Will You Run To" followed at #2 on the Mainstream Rock chart and #7 overall in the U.S.

 "There's The Girl" is yet another underrated song from Heart, stalling at #12.

 

In 1990, the group released Brigade, their sixth Platinum album and third consecutive Double Platinum LP in a row.  "All I Wanna' Do Is Make Love To You" became another monster hit--#1 in both Canada and Australia,  #2 overall in the U.S. (#2 Mainstream Rock and #6 AC) and #8 in the U.K. 

 "Stranded" reached #8 on the Adult Contemporary chart and #13 on the Hot 100 chart.

After a successful tour in 1990, Heart released the album Rock the House Live!  The group released Desire Walks On in 1993, and even though it was certified Gold, Heart would never reach the Top 40 again.  Heart released A Lovemongers' Christmas in 2001.

 

In 2004, the band released the album Jupiter's Darling, easily their best album since their self-titled release in 1985.  We want to feature "Make Me".

The 2010 album Red Velvet Car represented a return to the group's early sound and fans rewarded it by taking it to #10.

Nancy scored several of her husband's movies, including Jerry Maguire in 1996, Almost Famous in 2000 and Vanilla Sky in 2001.  Meanwhile, in 2000, Heart released their Greatest Hits:  1985-1995, which went Gold and The Essential Heart in 2002, which sold over one million copies.

In 2002, Ann and Nancy returned to touring with a new lineup and in 2009, the sisters were given the ASCAP Founder's Award in recognition of their songwriting talent.  

In 2012, Heart released the box set Strange Euphoria.  Later in the year, Ann and Nancy received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and the sisters released their autobiography, Kicking and Dreaming:  A Story of Heart, Soul, and Rock and Roll.

Heart released the studio album Fanatic and toured the U.S. and Canada to support it. 

In December of 2012, the Wilsons and Jason Bonham, son of the late Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham, performed "Stairway To Heaven" in tribute to Zeppelin at the Kennedy Center Honors.  The performance earned a standing ovation and when video of it went viral on YouTube, the Kennedy Center issued a limited edition iTunes single.  It rose to #1 on the Rock Singles chart.

Heart were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2013.  The original members of the group reunited for the first time in 34 years.  In 2016, Heart performed with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at Royal Albert Hall, with a CD and DVD of the show released.

Later in the year, the group released the album Beautiful Broken.  Heart toured the U.S. with Cheap Trick and Joan Jett.  While the band was touring, Ann's husband Dean Wetter was arrested and pleaded guilty to assaulting Nancy's 16-year-old twin boys after they had left the door to his RV open.  The incident strained the heretofore great relationship the sisters had had.  The group continued to honor its dates but after the tour ended in October, both sisters formed bands.

In 2019, however, Heart ender their hiatus and toured again that summer with different backing band members.

In addition to her groundbreaking work with Heart, Nancy has written and performed the scores for six films including Jerry Maguire.

The durable band has scored 30 career hits, with nine going Top 10 and two #1's.  They landed 12 Adult Contemporary hits with four Top 10's and one #1. 

^{Heart has sold over 35 million albums worldwide, including 22.5 million in the U.S., and has been nominated for four Grammy Awards.  The span of 35 years between Top 10 albums is the longest by a group led by females.}