Heart (Heart album)

Heart
Studio album by Heart
Released	June 21, 1985 (1985-06-21)
Recorded	January–April 1985
Studio	The Record Plant (Los Angeles, California) The Plant (Sausalito, California)
Genre	Rock[1] pop[1]
Length	39:28
Label	Capitol
Producer	Ron Nevison
Heart chronology
Passionworks (1983) Heart (1985) Bad Animals (1987)
Singles from Heart
"What About Love" Released: May 1985 "Never" Released: August 29, 1985[2] "These Dreams" Released: January 1986[3] "Nothin' at All" Released: April 3, 1986[4] "If Looks Could Kill" Released: July 1986

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[5]
Rolling Stone	Unfavorable[6]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide	[7]

Heart is the eighth studio album by American rock band Heart, released on June 21, 1985, by Capitol Records.^[8][9] The album continued the band's transition into mainstream rock, a genre that yielded the band its greatest commercial success. Marking the band's Capitol Records debut, it became Heart's only album to top the US Billboard 200 to date. The album was eventually certified quintuple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA)—in contrast to Heart's previous two releases, Private Audition and Passionworks, which were uncertified.^[10]

The album yielded the band's first number-one single, "These Dreams",^[11] along with four other singles: "What About Love", "Never", "Nothin' at All", and "If Looks Could Kill", with the first four singles reaching the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100.^[11] At the 28th Annual Grammy Awards, the album was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal.^[12]

In a 2022 interview, Ann Wilson stated that the album was self-titled because the band "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."^[13]

Track listing

Side one

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"If Looks Could Kill"	Jack Conrad Bob Garrett	3:42
2.	"What About Love"	Sheron Alton Brian Allen Jim Vallance	3:41
3.	"Never"	Holly Knight Gene Bloch Connie^[a]	4:07
4.	"These Dreams"	Bernie Taupin Martin Page	4:15
5.	"The Wolf"	Ann Wilson Nancy Wilson Howard Leese Mark Andes Denny Carmassi Sue Ennis	4:03

Side two

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
6.	"All Eyes"	Knight Bloch Connie^[a]	3:55
7.	"Nobody Home"	A. Wilson N. Wilson Ennis	4:07
8.	"Nothin' at All"	Mark Mueller	4:13
9.	"What He Don't Know"	A. Wilson N. Wilson Ennis	3:41
10.	"Shell Shock"	A. Wilson N. Wilson Leese Andes Carmassi Ennis	3:42
Total length:			39:28

Notes

• ^{^[a]} Connie is a pseudonym for Ann Wilson, Nancy Wilson and Sue Ennis.

Personnel

Credits adapted from the liner notes of Heart.^[14]

Heart

• Ann Wilson – vocals
• Nancy Wilson – lead guitar, acoustic guitar, mandolin, background vocals; lead vocals (track 4)
• Howard Leese – lead guitar, keyboards, mandolin, background vocals
• Mark Andes – bass guitar
• Denny Carmassi – drums

Additional musicians

• Peter Wolf – synthesizers, acoustic piano
• Mickey Thomas – background vocals (tracks 2, 6, 10)
• Johnny Colla – background vocals (tracks 4, 8)
• Grace Slick – background vocals (track 2)
• Lynn Wilson – background vocals
• Holly Knight – keyboards
• Frankie Sullivan – solo guitar (track 7); additional guitar (track 8)

Technical

• Scotty Olson – guitar technician
• Gary Clark – drum technician
• Ron Nevison – production, engineering
• Mike Clink – engineering assistance
• Brian Foraker – second assistant engineer
• Mike Reese – mastering at The Mastering Lab (Hollywood, California)

Artwork

• Rebecca Blake – photography
• Norman Moore – art direction, design

Charts

Weekly charts Weekly chart performance for Heart Chart (1985–1988) Peak position Australian Albums (Kent Music Report)[15] 37 Canada Top Albums/CDs (RPM)[16] 3 European Albums (Music & Media)[17] 59 Finnish Albums (Suomen virallinen lista)[18] 18 German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[19] 57 Japanese Albums (Oricon)[20] 30 Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)[21] 22 UK Albums (OCC)[22] 19 US Billboard 200[23] 1

Year-end charts 1985 year-end chart performance for Heart Chart (1985) Position Canada Top Albums/CDs (RPM)[24] 45 US Billboard 200[25] 79 1986 year-end chart performance for Heart Chart (1986) Position Canada Top Albums/CDs (RPM)[26] 9 US Billboard 200[27] 2 1988 year-end chart performance for Heart Chart (1988) Position UK Albums (Gallup)[28] 96 All-time charts All-time chart performance for Heart Chart Position US Billboard 200[29] 108 US Billboard 200 (Women)[30] 32

Certifications

Certifications for Heart

Region	Certification	Certified units/sales
Canada (Music Canada)[31]	6× Platinum	600,000^^
Japan (RIAJ)[32]	Gold	100,000^^
United Kingdom (BPI)[33]	Gold	100,000^^
United States (RIAA)[9]	5× Platinum	5,000,000^^
^^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.

References

1. Smith, Troy L. (November 10, 2022). "Every No. 1 album of the 1980s ranked from worst to best". Cleveland.com. Retrieved December 13, 2024. The band began a move into mainstream rock territory that peaked on its 1985 self-titled album. Heart was all about embracing its pop savvy and Ann Wilson's big vocals...
2. "New Releases". The Friday Morning Quarterback Album Report. August 23, 1985. p. 30. OCLC 857904873.
3. "Heart – These Dreams" (in Dutch). Dutch Charts. Retrieved July 9, 2021.
4. "New Releases". The Friday Morning Quarterback. March 21, 1986. p. 35. OCLC 857904873.
5. Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Heart – Heart". AllMusic. Retrieved April 21, 2013.
6. Guterman, Jimmy (October 24, 1985). "Heart: Heart". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on December 28, 2007. Retrieved April 21, 2013.
7. Coleman, Mark; Berger, Arion (2004). "Heart". In Brackett, Nathan; Hoard, Christian (eds.). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (4th ed.). New York: Simon & Schuster. p. 372. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8.
8. "New Releases". Friday Morning Quarterback Album Report. June 14, 1985. p. 28. OCLC 857904873.
9. "American album certifications – Heart – Heart". Recording Industry Association of America. June 4, 1992. Retrieved October 27, 2018.
10. Popoff, Martin (2014). The Big Book of Hair Metal: The Illustrated Oral History of Heavy Metal's Debauched Decade. Minneapolis: Voyageur Press. p. 90. ISBN 978-0-7603-4546-7 – via Google Books.
11. "Heart – Heart | Awards". AllMusic. Archived from the original on March 15, 2016. Retrieved June 5, 2014.
12. "28th Grammy Awards – 1986". Rock on the Net. Retrieved October 27, 2018.
13. Popoff, Martin. "'Bébé le Strange' to 'Bad Animals': Ann Wilson reveals meaning behind 7 Heart album titles". Goldmine. Retrieved April 6, 2024.
14. Heart (liner notes). Heart. Capitol Records. 1985. CDP 7 46157 2.
15. Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992 (illustrated ed.). St Ives, N.S.W.: Australian Chart Book. p. 136. ISBN 0-646-11917-6.
16. "Top RPM Albums: Issue 0660". RPM. Library and Archives Canada. Retrieved October 27, 2018.
17. "Eurochart Hot 100 Albums". Music & Media. Vol. 5, no. 25. June 18, 1988. p. 34. OCLC 29800226.
18. Pennanen, Timo (2021). "Heart". Sisältää hitin – Levyt ja esittäjät Suomen musiikkilistoilla 1.1.1960–30.6.2021 (PDF) (in Finnish) (2nd ed.). Helsinki: Kustannusosakeyhtiö Otava. p. 99. ISBN 978-952-7460-01-6.
19. "Offiziellecharts.de – Heart – Heart" (in German). GfK Entertainment Charts. Retrieved October 27, 2018.
20. Oricon Album Chart Book: Complete Edition 1970–2005 (in Japanese). Roppongi, Tokyo: Oricon Entertainment. 2006. ISBN 4-87131-077-9.
21. "Swedishcharts.com – Heart – Heart". Hung Medien. Retrieved October 27, 2018.
22. "Official Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved October 27, 2018.
23. "Heart Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard. Retrieved October 27, 2018.
24. "RPM's Top 100 Albums of 1985". RPM. Vol. 43, no. 16. December 25, 1985. p. 14. ISSN 0033-7064 – via Library and Archives Canada.
25. "Billboard 200 Albums – Year-End 1985". Billboard. Archived from the original on July 30, 2018. Retrieved October 27, 2018.
26. "Top 100 Albums of '86". RPM. Vol. 45, no. 14. December 27, 1986. p. 9. ISSN 0033-7064 – via Library and Archives Canada.
27. "Billboard 200 Albums – Year-End 1986". Billboard. Archived from the original on July 2, 2018. Retrieved October 27, 2018.
28. "Top 100 Albums – Year-End Chart 1988". Music Week Awards. Music Week. March 4, 1989. p. 8. ISSN 0265-1548.
29. "Greatest of All Time Billboard 200 Albums". Billboard. Archived from the original on September 15, 2020. Retrieved August 24, 2019.
30. "Greatest of All Time Billboard 200 Albums by Women". Billboard. Archived from the original on September 19, 2020. Retrieved August 24, 2019.
31. "Canadian album certifications – Heart – Heart". Music Canada. October 8, 1993. Retrieved October 27, 2018.
32. "A "gold" record award presented to Nancy Wilson in recognition of excellent sales for Heart from Toshiba-EMI Ltd". Retrieved July 7, 2023.
33. "British album certifications – Heart – Heart". British Phonographic Industry. March 1, 1988. Retrieved September 12, 2020.