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Heart in its place

Ann Wilson and Nancy Wilson spent their early years in Southern California and Taiwan before their Marine Corps captain father retired to the Seattle suburbs. After attending college they returned home to Seattle, with Nancy working as a folk singer and Ann joining an all male group in 1970 called ‘Heart’. The group was formed in 1963 by Steve Fossen and the Fisher siblings, Mike and Roger, as the ‘Army’. It was later changed to ‘White Heart’ and then shortened to ‘Heart’ in 1974. After a period of struggle, in the Vancouver area between 1974 and 1976, they released Dreamboat Annie, which upon release sold 30,000 copies in Canada alone. They released it release in the U.S. subsequently, with two songs, Crazy on You and Magic Man, doing very well and eventually leading it to sell a million copies. Little Queen, its second million dollar selling album was brought forth in 1977 and included the hit number, Barracuda. Magazine and the double platinum selling Dog and Butterfly followed suit in 1978.

During sessions for Bebe Le Strange, the Wilson-Fisher liaisons ended. Roger Fisher formed his own band in the Seattle area. Howard Leese and Nancy took up the guitar slack and the song-writing department was handled by her childhood mate, Sue Ennis. The group hit the road for a 77- city tour in support of ‘Bebe’ and returned to complete their next album, Private Audition. That offering and the ensuing one, Passionworks, failed to go gold, leaving Heart at the crossroads. 1985 saw them release an album simply titled Heart, which contained four hits namely, “What About Love”, “Never”, “These Dreams” and “Nothing at All”. In June 1986 Nancy Wilson married journalist, screenwriter and director Cameron Crowe. She made a cameo appearance in his movie, “Fast Times at Ridgemont High”. The power ballad, “Alone”, “Who will You Run To” and “There’s the Girl” were the hits from their next album, Bad Animals. Brigade became Heart’s sixth multi-platinum LP. The band offered live acoustic versions of its best known songs on 1995’s, The Road Home, which was produced by Led Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones.

Of the sisters, Nancy has kept busiest scoring music for her husband’s movies, “Jerry Macguire” and “Almost Famous”.

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