Heart is a rock band that first formed in Seattle, Washington in the mid 1960s. The group was originally known as The Army, and included lead guitarist Roger Fisher and bassist Steve Fossen. Roger's brother, Mike Fisher, served as the band's manager. Mike Fisher lived in Vancouver, Canada, at the time to evade the Vietnam War draft, so the group built up a sizeable fanbase in Vancouver. Soon, the band changed their name to White Heart, and finally settled on the name Heart. In 1970, Heart recruited lead vocalist Ann Wilson, who brought a unique style to the band. Before long, Mike Fisher and Ann Wilson became romantically involved. Soon after that, Ann Wilson convinced her younger sister, guitarist and songwriter Nancy Wilson, to leave college and join Heart. Not only did Nancy bring her talent to the band, she also fell in love with guitarist Roger Fisher. The group was now led by the Fishers and the Wilsons, and began honing their sound to try to sign a record deal. The original lineup of Heart was finalized with the addition of Howard Leese on keyboards/guitars and Mike Derosier on drums. The group played bars and clubs in Seattle and Vancouver until the mid 1970s, when they signed with Mushroom Records, a small record label in Canada.
In 1976, the band released their debut album, Dreamboat Annie. It took some time, but the album eventually went platinum with the hit title track and the song "Magic Man".
The band was in the middle of working on their second album for Mushroom, when the Wilson sisters discovered an ad in Rolling Stone magazine placed by Mushroom Records, stating that they were lesbian lovers. The Wilson sisters immediately severed ties with Mushroom and sued the record label over the ad. Mushroom countersued, claiming they had the right to do the ad. The album with Mushroom was put on indefinite hold, and Heart signed a new record deal with Portrait Records, a subsidary of Sony. Heart's debut with Portrait, Little Queen, was released in 1977. This album went double platinum, powered by the hard rock hit "Barracuda".
The legal battle with Mushroom ended in 1978, when Mushroom won the right to release the delayed album, titled Magazine. Though Heart was given the right to remix some of the songs on the album, they were not particularly happy with the album's sound. Nonetheless, the album went platinum, and featured the hit "Heartless".
Later in 1978, the band released their fourth album, Dog & Butterfly, which featured the hit title track and "Straight On". But Heart was in turmoil. Roger Fisher and Nancy Wilson ended their romantic relationship, and Nancy began dating drummer Mike Derosier. Roger Fisher became so angry at Nancy, that he destroyed his guitar on stage during a show in Portland, Oregon, and then nearly attacked Nancy backstage. The Wilson sisters convinced the other band members to vote Roger Fisher out of the band in 1979, and Heart would continue as a quintet thereafter. After Roger Fisher was dismissed from the band, Ann Wilson soon ended her relationship with Mike Fisher, and Fisher cut all ties with Heart. This gave the Wilson sisters full control of the band and the name Heart.
In 1980 came the album Bebe Le Strange, which featured the hit "Even It Up" and the title track. A greatest hits compilation, titled Greatest Hits/Live, came out shortly after, and featured a few live tracks and some unreleased material, including the single "Tell It Like It Is".
Heart's seventh album, Private Audition (1982), was the first Heart album that failed to go platinum. The only hit single from this album was the song "This Man Is Mine". Both Fossen and Derosier were disappointed with the album's sound, so the Wilson sisters fired them, leaving only Howard Leese from the original lineup. In 1983, Fossen was replaced by bassist Mark Andes and Derosier was replaced by drummer Denny Carmassi. The band's next album, Passionworks, featured an energized Heart with the single "How Can I Refuse". But the album only reached the top 40 on the charts, and Epic Records did not renew Heart's contract. It appeared that Heart was going to stop beating.
By 1984, Nancy Wilson had fallen in love with filmmaker Cameron Crowe, and they married shortly after they first met. In 1985, Heart signed with Capitol Records, and released the Heart album. Heart suddenly experienced a rebirth, as the album generated four top ten singles, including "Never", "These Dreams", "What About Love" and "Nothin' At All". The album easily sailed all the way to #1 on the charts, but many of the band's longtime fans felt that the Wilson sisters had sold their souls to 'corporate' rock, as the women became sexy fashion models on MTV with their looks as well as their videos.
Bad Animals, the next album, came out in 1987. It featured the top ten hit "Alone", as well as the hit "Who Will You Run To". Soon, Ann Wilson became the target of personal attacks about her weight from fans and band members within Heart. Ann suffered from panic attacks on stage, but Nancy managed to keep her sister going until the end of the tour. Major changes lay ahead for Heart.
The Brigade album, (1990), featured the hit "All I Wanna Do Is Make Love To You". This was followed by Heart's first full-length live album, Rock The House-Live (1991). But Heart had reached another turning point. Andes and Carmassi were fired from the band, and the Wilson sisters and Howard Leese would start anew.
In 1993, Heart released Desire Walks On, which featured the hits "Will You Be There (In The Morning)" and "Back To Avalon". The Road Home (1995) was a collection of hits and covers done acoustically at the Backstage Club in Seattle. New bassist Fernando Saunders and drummer Denny Fongheiser were featured on this album, as well as mandolin work by producer and former Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones.
In 1997, a second greatest hits compilation, titled These Dreams-Heart's Greatest Hits was released. It featured all of their major hits from the Capitol albums. Epic released a second greatest hits package in 1998, which featured one new song, "Strong Strong Wind". Capitol then replaced the 1997 hits package in 2000 with the compilation Greatest Hits 1985-1995, which included more rare and unreleased tracks from the vault, including a duet with Cheap Trick vocalist Robin Zander.
The Wilson sisters formed a side group called The Lovemongers in the late 90s, and released three albums while taking a break from Heart. Howard Leese bid farewell to Heart and moved on to session work with various artists and a solo career.
Heart returned to recording in 2003 with the release of the album Alive In Seattle, which featured some new songs and never before heard covers of Led Zeppelin songs, which the band considers their biggest influence. The studio album Jupiter's Darling followed in 2004, with hit singles like "Make Me" and "Down The Nile", and featured a new band backing Ann and Nancy Wilson.
Today, the Wilson sisters carry on with the Heart moniker, while finding time to handle side projects and good personal lives. Though their glory days may have come and gone, Heart continues to please fans with their Zeppelin-esque sound. Their story proves that women can run the show just as good as men, if not better.