Heart

Heart grew out of a string of Pacific Northwest bands, the Army, Hocus Pocus and White Heart among them, and by 1975 the Seattle outfit had settled into shape: Ann Wilson singing lead and playing flute, her sister Nancy Wilson on rhythm guitar and vocals, Roger Fisher and Howard Leese on guitars (Leese on keyboards too), Steve Fossen on bass and Michael Derosier on drums. What they played was hard rock and heavy metal thunder cut with folk, and out front were 2 women who could outplay and outsing most of the men on the circuit.

Dreamboat Annie, in 1975, came roaring out with "Magic Man", all slinky menace, and "Crazy on You", a frantic, galloping rush with a vocal that tears the roof off. Little Queen followed in 1977 with "Kick It Out" and "Love Alive", and "Barracuda", galloping on one of the most vicious riffs of the decade, hit the Top 40 that same year. Dog & Butterfly came in 1978 with "Straight On", and Bébé le Strange in 1980 with "Even It Up" and its title track.

Then the lineup cracked. By 1982 Fisher, Fossen and Derosier were gone, replaced by Mark Andes on bass and Denny Carmassi on drums, and for a few years the audience drifted off. But the mid-'80s brought a big comeback on the radio. The 1985 album Heart had "What About Love", "Never" and "These Dreams", a number one, and Bad Animals in 1987 gave them "Alone", another number one, all power-ballad bombast and a vocal that leaves scorch marks. The hits kept coming into the '90s.

Heart broke up in 1998 but has come back to tour and record several times since, with the Wilson sisters the only constant. They've sold more than 50 million records, been nominated for 4 Grammys, and gone into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2013, with the 1975 core lineup included in the honor.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.