50 Fun Facts About Heart (Band)

Heart protested when a 2008 convention played "Barracuda" as a nod to which politician's nickname?

Sarah Palin said she was nicknamed Sarah Barracuda as a high school basketball player, so the Republican convention played the song. The Wilson sisters answered with a cease-and-desist letter.

Ann and Nancy Wilson moved Robert Plant to tears at the 2012 Kennedy Center Honors with which song?

Stairway to Heaven was performed with an orchestra, two choirs and Jason Bonham, son of Led Zeppelin's late drummer, behind the kit. The clip drew over four million YouTube views in five days.

Before Heart's 1987 hit version, which future sitcom star sang "Alone" on the 1984 comedy Dreams?

John Stamos recorded it with co-star Valerie Stevenson three years before Heart took the song to No. 1. Its two writers had already released it themselves in 1983 under the name i-Ten.

Heart came together in Canada because Ann Wilson's boyfriend Mike Fisher had fled there to avoid what?

The military draft sent Mike Fisher over the border during the Vietnam War, and Ann Wilson followed him after they met at one of the group's shows. Heart then built its following in Canadian clubs.

Nancy Wilson of Heart has a cameo as the "Beautiful Girl in Car" in which 1982 teen comedy?

Fast Times at Ridgemont High has her pull up at a traffic light and laugh at Brad in his pirate costume. She married the film's screenwriter four years later.

Which singer turned down "These Dreams" before Nancy Wilson sang it to No. 1 for Heart in 1986?

Stevie Nicks passed on the song, written by Martin Page and Elton John's lyricist Bernie Taupin. Heart liked it enough to break a habit of recording only the band's own material.

Nancy Wilson of Heart married which filmmaker in 1986 and went on to score several of his movies?

Cameron Crowe met her in 1981 through a mutual friend, and she later wrote the music for his films Jerry Maguire, Vanilla Sky and Elizabethtown. The couple divorced in 2010.

Seeing which band on television in 1964 made Ann and Nancy Wilson want to be rock musicians?

The Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show hit the sisters like a lightning bolt, Nancy said later, and they were soon staging air-guitar shows in the living room. Two years on, they saw the group play Seattle.

Which singer covered Heart's power ballad "Alone" on her 2007 album Taking Chances?

Celine Dion had her version produced by former Evanescence member Ben Moody. One reviewer praised the vocal while noting that the song still belongs to Ann Wilson.

Which Heart hit is about Ann Wilson's boyfriend, the band's manager, and how their romance began?

Magic Man is sung from the viewpoint of a young woman being wooed by an older man, to her mother's dismay. It became Heart's first top-10 single in the United States.

Which debut album made Heart stars in 1976, with a cover showing the Wilson sisters back to back?

Dreamboat Annie first came out in Canada in 1975 on a tiny local label and sold 30,000 copies there within months. Released in the US the next year, it climbed to No. 7 and passed a million sales.

Heart's "Barracuda" appears on which 1977 album, the band's first after leaving its original label?

Little Queen went triple platinum on the strength of that single. For a time Heart had three albums on the US chart at once, because the old label had put out a rival release.

In which Canadian city was Heart based when the band recorded its debut album in 1975?

Vancouver became the band's home after it left the Seattle area, and the album was cut in a studio there. Being a Canadian recording helped it onto radio stations that had local-content quotas to fill.

Besides singing lead, Ann Wilson is credited with which woodwind instrument on Heart's early albums?

Flute is Ann Wilson's second credit, after lead vocals, in the lineup the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame honoured. Her later credits stretch to autoharp, piano and even bass.

Ann and Nancy Wilson moved often as children because their father served in which military branch?

The Marines posted Major Wilson and his family overseas before they settled near Seattle in the early 1960s. Pancakes and opera on Sundays, Nancy recalled, kept a sense of home wherever they lived.

Heart's original lineup reunited after 34 years to play which song at its 2013 Rock Hall induction?

Crazy on You put the six 1970s members on one stage for the first time in more than three decades. Nancy Wilson has said its racing acoustic rhythm was inspired by a Moody Blues song.

In 2012, Ann and Nancy Wilson were honoured for their music with a star on which landmark?

The Hollywood Walk of Fame star arrived a week after the sisters published a joint autobiography, and less than three months before Heart was voted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

In Heart's "All I Wanna Do Is Make Love to You", whom does the narrator pick up for one night?

A hitchhiker is the stranger she chooses, and the song later reveals she wanted a child her partner could not give her. Ann Wilson has called its message hideous.

For which 2000 film about a touring band did Nancy Wilson compose the theme and coach the actors?

Almost Famous also features songs she co-wrote for its fictional group Stillwater, and she taught the cast to look like working musicians on stage. Her score earned a BAFTA nomination.

Heart's 1978 album named its rocking first side and gentle second side after which two creatures?

Dog and butterfly gave the two sides their names: the Dog side rocked and the Butterfly side held the ballads. The record sold a million copies within a month of release.

Which Seattle musician inducted Heart into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2013?

Chris Cornell called the Wilson sisters heroes and role models to him and to other musicians in the city. His own group had recorded at the Seattle studio the sisters once owned.

Ann Wilson of Heart sang guest vocals on the 1992 EP Sap by which Seattle grunge band?

Alice in Chains had her sing on the choruses of two tracks, Brother and Am I Inside. A decade later the group's bassist, Mike Inez, joined Heart's touring lineup.

Why does Nancy Wilson's lead vocal on Heart's "These Dreams" sound unusually raspy and gravelly?

She had a cold on the day of the session, and the huskiness stayed on the record. After it became a hit, producers reportedly asked whether she could just get sick again.

Ann Wilson of Heart was a shy child who sought fulfilment in music because of what?

A stutter left her shy as a girl, so she looked to music for fulfilment instead. She went on to study at Cornish College of the Arts before fronting Heart.

Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones produced which 1995 Heart album of unplugged live recordings?

The Road Home was taped at a club in the band's home city of Seattle, with the producer also playing piano, bass and mandolin. Ann Wilson called him a prince among men.

What did Ann and Nancy Wilson call the acoustic side group they formed for a Gulf War benefit?

The Lovemongers took a name meant as an answer to wartime warmongering. Having no drummer, the group used a keyboard rhythm track and stood a cardboard cutout of a famous drummer on stage as a joke.

Which rock star sings backing vocals on Heart's 1985 comeback single "What About Love"?

Grace Slick sang on it with her Starship bandmate Mickey Thomas. The song was first recorded in 1982 by the Canadian group Toronto, which chose to leave it off an album.

Heart entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2013 alongside which progressive rock band?

Rush joined the same class, as did Donna Summer, Public Enemy and Randy Newman. Heart had been passed over on its first nomination a year earlier.

Which 1987 Heart album is named after the band's nickname for its road-weary look in hotel lobbies?

Bad Animals was what the members called themselves when they shuffled into hotels dishevelled, exhausted and hiding behind sunglasses. The Wilsons later gave the same name to their Seattle studio.

Heart's first label enraged the Wilson sisters with a suggestive ad in which music publication?

Rolling Stone ran the ad in December 1976, with a photo of the bare-shouldered sisters over a caption hinting at a shared first time. The band cited it as a key reason for walking out on the label.

Which Heart album did its old label release unfinished in 1977 before a court had it recalled?

Magazine reached shops with half-finished tracks until Heart won an injunction. The band then reworked it in four days while a court-ordered guard watched over the master tapes.

Which small Canadian label released Heart's debut, then lost the band after a bitter contract fight?

Mushroom Records refused to raise the group's royalties after its first hit album, so Heart signed elsewhere and the two sides spent nearly two years in dispute. The label later went bankrupt.

Heart's mid-1980s comeback began when the band, dropped by CBS, signed with which label?

Capitol Records paired Heart with outside songwriters and a glossier, more polished sound. The band's two previous albums had failed even to reach gold status.

What chart milestone did Heart reach for the first time with its self-titled 1985 album?

A US No. 1 had eluded Heart for a decade until this record, which was certified five times platinum. It also produced four top-ten singles.

Ann and Nancy Wilson dated Heart's Mike Fisher and Roger Fisher, two men who were related how?

Brothers Mike and Roger Fisher paired off with Ann and Nancy, and the two couples effectively ran the group. Both romances ended in 1979, and within months neither man was part of Heart.

Heart's Hall of Fame page credits the Wilson sisters as the first women to front what kind of band?

Hard rock is the label the Hall uses, calling the sisters pioneers who inspired women to pick up an electric guitar or start a band. Heart's own records also drew on folk and, later, pop.

Heart reached the US top ten covering "Tell It Like It Is", a 1960s hit for which soul singer?

Aaron Neville took the original to No. 2 in early 1967, kept from the top by the Monkees. Heart's version was a new studio track on a double album of hits and live cuts, and peaked at No. 8.

Heart's 1975 break came with a day's notice to open a Montreal concert for which singer?

Rod Stewart needed a new opening act when the booked one cancelled, so Heart flew across Canada overnight to play the Montreal Forum. Album sales and airplay in the region climbed afterwards.

In the video for Heart's "Alone", Nancy Wilson's piano collapses and she is later shown riding what?

A black horse carries her through part of the clip, which opens with Ann singing down from a balcony in a nod to Romeo and Juliet. Marty Callner directed it in 1987.

Heart's "What About Love" featured in TV commercials around 2010 for which cleaning brand?

Swiffer used it to sell the WetJet mop, in a campaign built around pop hits of the 1970s and 1980s. The song had earlier returned Heart to the US top ten after a five-year absence.

Which songwriter-producer wrote Heart's 1990 No. 2 hit "All I Wanna Do Is Make Love to You"?

Mutt Lange's song was first recorded in 1979 by Dobie Gray, with different words and no storyline. Ann Wilson has said Heart felt pressured into cutting it and later swore off playing it.

Nancy Wilson says Heart borrowed the "Barracuda" riff from which band it had supported on tour?

Nazareth had a hit with a Joni Mitchell cover, This Flight Tonight, whose riff the Wilsons reworked. When the two bands next met, Nancy recalled, its members complained that Heart had taken it.

What is the title of the 2012 memoir Ann and Nancy Wilson wrote with Kurt Cobain's biographer?

Kicking & Dreaming carries the subtitle A Story of Heart, Soul, and Rock and Roll. Co-writer Charles R. Cross is best known for Heavier Than Heaven, his biography of the Nirvana singer.

Which musician stayed in Heart for 23 years, longer than anyone except the Wilson sisters?

Howard Leese helped produce the band's first demo in 1974, joined the following year and stayed until 1998. He went on to tour as guitarist with Paul Rodgers and Bad Company.

Heart's name grew from "White Hart", a band name taken from a book by which science fiction author?

Arthur C. Clarke's Tales from the White Hart inspired a friend's band name, which Heart's forerunners got permission to use. They switched the spelling from the deer to the organ, then dropped the White.

To earn her place in Heart, Nancy Wilson had to learn the acoustic piece "Clap" by which band?

Yes released the piece on The Yes Album. Some of the men in Heart resisted her joining, so she learned it, played it at a tavern gig the next night and was made a member.

Which friend of Ann and Nancy Wilson became their long-time co-writer on songs including "Straight On"?

Sue Ennis was a graduate student at Berkeley when she became the sisters' writing partner in 1978. She later played in their acoustic side group and taught songwriting at a community college.

Which 2010 album gave Heart its first US top-ten placing in twenty years, peaking at No. 10?

Red Velvet Car returned to the folk-tinged melodic rock of the band's 1970s albums. It includes Sunflower, a song Nancy Wilson wrote for her sister's 60th birthday.

Which funk band's horn section plays on Heart's 1980 single "Even It Up"?

Tower of Power's horns returned for two more Heart recordings, including the hit cover of Tell It Like It Is. Ann Wilson has called the song a response to the obstacles women faced in rock.

Ann and Nancy Wilson grew up in which Seattle suburb, where Ann attended Sammamish High School?

Bellevue is where the family settled when their father retired from the service, and he went on to teach English at Ann's school. Nancy went to the newly opened Interlake High School.