First known as The Army (as far back as 1963 when bassist Steve Fossen joined up with guitarist Roger Fisher to form a Seattle bar band) and then White Heart, the Vancouver-based band fronted by sisters Ann and Nancy Wilson evolved from 1970s folk-rock to 1980s stadium rock – with big voices and bigger hair.
The Wilson sisters grew up in a military family – their father was a Marine Corps officer for 25 years – and spent their earlier years moving from one military base to another (Ann was born in San Diego and Nancy in San Francisco).
The sisters liked the feel of silk as well as the roar of heavy metal and saw no reason why they couldn’t build the filigreed harmonies and acoustic intimacy of folk music into solid rock.
Heart was still primarily a Vancouver bar band until 1975 when the group signed with Mushroom Records, a small Canadian label run by Shelly Siegel, a transplanted 31-year-old New Yorker.
That same year, their debut album Dreamboat Annie was released in Canada where it sold a healthy 30,000 copies and Siegel headed south in search of a US distribution deal.
Heart went on to sell 2½ million copies of Dreamboat Annie with its hit singles Magic Man and Crazy On You. Their second album, Little Queen, actually sold even faster than Dreamboat.
Magazine was a hodgepodge, released as a settlement of contractual disputes with Mushroom Records. Mushroom manager Shelly Siegel died in January 1979, aged 32, from a ruptured congenital aneurysm.
Heart faded at the end of the decade, but the 1990 epic All I Want To Do Is Make Love To You became a classic homage to the one-night stand.
Ann Wilson
Vocals, flute
Nancy Wilson
Guitar, vocals, mandolin
Roger Fisher
Guitar
Steve Fossen
Bass
Howard Leese
Keyboards, guitar
Michael Derosier
Drums
Mark Andes
Bass
Denny Carmassi
Drums
Fernando Saunders
Bass
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