HEART WERE HEARTLESS ON THIS OCCASION

HEART were a much diffrent sounding band in the 70`s compared to the 80`s, I guess the same goes for bands like FLEETWOOD MAC, FOREIGNER, GENESIS and if his solo career counts unofficially as LED ZEPPELIN, then ROBERT PLANT would have to rate as having undergone the biggest transformation between the two decades.

ANN and NANCY WILSON made up half (or two-fifths at certain times) of HEART, the canadian sisters whose rock ballads from the mid 80`s captivated pop fans the world over and in many instances scored the band much in the way of commercial manna.

Won't even attempt to review all of the band's pre-80`s history tonight, because there is a damn lot of it, stretching all the way back to the late 1960's, if you were to include the band called THE ARMY, which the Wilson sister's weren't part of but which included guitarists ROGER FISCHER and bass guitarist STEVE FOSSEN, who would eventually team up with the Wilson sisters, firstly Ann in 1971, and later on Nancy in 1974.

Along the way THE ARMY renamed itself HOCUS POCUS, good thing they gave that name the flick, before settling on HEART for the debut record DREAMBOAT ANNIE, a very stripped down set of songs eluding to a marginal Led Zeppelin influence.

THE ARMY and some of Heart's 80`s albums I might write about another time, but if I were asked to choose one HEART song that grabs me the most out of the band's 70`s and 80`s catalogue it would be HEARTLESS, off the 1977 album MAGAZINE.

The release of this album courted a bizarre form of controversy, given that the initial 1977 release was 'unauthorised' by the band itself, with some or all of the band members unhappy with the production quality of the studio recorded songs. A court ruled in favour of the band, on the proviso HEART agreed to release another album for the label.

HEART got the last laugh anyway in 1980 when Mushroom Records went bust. HEARTLESS is a great song, not sure if this version was tweaked after the court case to make it 'smoother' , or if this was the original take, but it's a great Led Zeppelin-ish R&B tune no matter if HEART considered it to be a bit rough around the edges in 1977.