Remember When Heart Made Some Compromises on a Hit-Filled Album in 1985?

Rock bands had some difficult choices to make in the 80s. Simply staying in a holding pattern with what had worked before generally didn’t cut it. The winds of musical change were shifting too dramatically.

When faced with their own decision about how to proceed, Heart went with a significant change of approach. Everything from their songwriting to their look took on a new aspect. The result was a 1985 self-titled album that turned them into superstars.

The Wilsons’ Decision

Heart emerged from Washington state in the mid-70s with a fierce commitment to hard rock laced with grabby hooks. In sisters Ann and Nancy Wilson, the band boasted two stellar performers and songwriters out in front. Their first few albums established them as immediate arena rock stars.

But the onset of the 80s witnessed a decline in the success of the band’s albums and singles. Turnover within the band also slowed their momentum. Their 1983 album Passionworks struggled to make much of a dent in the heart of the MTV era.

The band switched labels following that release and headed into the middle of the decade. Capitol Records, their new home, convinced them that it would be wise to start accepting songs from outside writers. They had mostly avoided that scenario in the past. That decision transformed their career.

Hits from Outside

They titled the album simply Heart, not because they felt it was representative of the band, but because they felt a distance from the music. Ann Wilson explained as much to Goldmine, saying that they “didn’t write a whole lot of the songs on there, so that aspect of closeness with the work was gone and it was much harder for us to come up with a title that was real.”

But those outside songs proved to be just what the doctor ordered, at least in terms of their commercial prospects. The first single, “What About Love”, had been penned three years earlier by a trio of writers, including Jim Vallance, a key collaborator with Bryan Adams. Top songwriter-for-hire Holly Knight was in on the writing of “Never”. And “These Dreams”, which Bernie Taupin had a hand in writing, was earmarked for Stevie Nicks before Heart’s producer Ron Nevison squirreled it away for the band.

Each of those songs shot to the Top 10. And “These Dreams”, which was the rare Heart single sung by Nancy Wilson (instead of Ann), shot all the way to the top of the pop charts. The concessions that the band made in a musical sense took them to No. 1. But they didn’t stop there.

A New Look

Heart also underwent a makeover of sorts to keep up with the times. Both the Wilson sisters were prominently showcased in a series of videos with ever-rising hair and attention-grabbing outfits. Those videos went a long way to ensuring the success of the album.

Still, it bothered the sisters that five singles were released from the album, only one of which featured even a partial songwriting credit from the band. Still, they rode the wave on follow-up records Bad Animals (1987) and Brigade (1990), which both featured more hits coming from outside writers.

By the time the sisters wrested back artistic control of the band on the 1993 Desire Walks On, their window for commercial success had closed. The Heart album managed to change their fortunes for better and worse all at once, representing an era where they ceded autonomy to make a chart splash.

Photo by Michael Putland/Getty Images

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