Original Desmond

I may have heard the song as a child but i have only recently properly discovered Heart's song Alone. Has to be now my favourite rock ballad

I've watched some of their recent live renditions of the song and boy Ann Wilson is an amazing vocalist. It's not very often you would go to a concert by a band 30 years past their prime and get a performance better or at least as good as the original recording. Most of these 'nostalgia' bands doing tours nowadays sound like absolute crap (most never sounded good live in the first place).

Ann has rocked into my Top 5 Female vocalists of all time

DJariya

Agree. I heard Ann Wilson got a lot of criticism for gaining some weight as she's gotten older, but she's still a hell of a vocalist. Probably more so because she and Nancy were coming off being the glammed up sex kittens in the late 80's.

Look on Youtube, Carrie Underwood did a great cover of it on American Idol back in 2005.

GuessWho

It seems that on any given singing talent show, there's one contestant that will do "Alone." Love the song, but it's overuse on American Idol, X Factor and The Voice is gonna kill it.

Groucho

I imagine a lot of young people associate that song with her and have no idea who Ann and Nancy Wilson even are.

Fun fact: Nancy Wilson wrote all the songs for the fictional band "Stillwater" in the film Almost Famous.

Original Desmond

Yeah that's cool and there's also a live performance of Carrie performing with Ann and Nancy which is great

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fpf0LMQ2RLs

Eddie W

I saw them last summer on their tour with Jason Bonham's Led Zeppelin experience. One of my top 5 concerts of all time. Ann is one of the few artists from that era who can still sing the songs in their original key. And Nancy is still hot as hell.

I never cared much for their 80's ballad phase though. I'm glad they are kind of settling back into the rock thing. Last year's Fanatic was great.

Supermallet

Yeah, I dig their '70s stuff, but the '80s stuff turns me off.

Hiro11

Likely because she's married to Cameron Crowe, or at least was at one point. Also, she's the "hot chick" in "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" who gives Judge Reinhold a glance while he's wearing a pirate costume. Likely for the same reason.

Decker

What was that music video they shot in the early Nineties where they shot Ann with a distortion lens to make her look less heavy, but it really made her look stretched like a funhouse mirror?

astrochimp

I did not know that.

I also did not know that.

Rocketdog2000

Wow, way to make a fella feel old. I was in my early 20's when that song originally came out. Ann Wilson has always had an amazing voice, though.


Not to take too much away from her, but "co-wrote", and "some of" would be the correct terms there. On the tracks she did - "Fever Dog", "Love Thing", "Chance Upon You" and "Love Comes And Goes" - her writing partners were either her then husband Cameron Crowe, or sister Ann.

The other tunes performed by Stillwater in the flick - "Hour Of Need" and "You Had To Be There", were written by Peter Frampton, Wayne Kirkpatrick and Gordon Kennedy. Frampton also appeared in the movie as one of the Road Managers (for his old group Humble Pie), and also supervised the actors to look like an actual performing band in the film, with Nancy Wilson. He, along with Pearl Jam's Mike McCready, Gordon Kennedy, Martin Frederksen, Jon Bayless and Ben Smith also perform all the actual Stillwater music heard in the film. If you got the directors cut of the DVD, these tunes came on a bonus CD with it, and they also appear on the vinyl Soundtrack as bonus songs.

Nancy Wilson also did write the Score/Theme music for Almost Famous, as she did with many of her ex-husband Crowe's films - contributing some or all of the score music to Say Anything, Singles, Jerry Maguire, Vanilla Sky and Elizabethtown.

mickey65

"Straight On" and "Bebe Le Strange" - my two all-times faves by Heart.

Geofferson

Heart's great. I listen to them on vinyl more often than I probably should. "Who Will You Run To?" always puts me in a good mood.

^ Bebe's a great tune

Ropes Pierre

i used to love hearing older relatives tell kick ass Heart concert stories.

Playing through hurricanes, lightning striking the stages, Ann not being roly poly.

Decker

I saw them a couple of years ago from great seats in the showroom at the LV Hilton. They sounded great actually. Apparently they have a huge lesbian following. Huge.

bunkaroo

I really like the 80's Heart stuff.

That said, I always imagine Ann is singing the chorus of "Crazy On You" to a giant submarine sandwich.

UAIOE

I've always found the 80's ballad stuff to be dated and cheesy. The 70's stuff is pretty classic.

But there is a fantastic version of "Never" on their Strange Euphoria boxset that is way better than the original.

Decker

For those curious : they thankfully did not perform "All I Want To Do Is Make Love To You" during their live set -- quite possibly the worst hit single ever recorded by a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee.

Rocketdog2000

In the liner notes of Heart's album The Road Home, Ann Wilson commented on the band's dislike for the song, stating, "Actually we had sworn off it because it kind of stood for everything we wanted to get away from. It was a song by "Mutt" Lange, who we liked, and it was originally written for Don Henley, but there was a lot of pressure on us to do the song at the time."

Tough decision between following your instincts, and dealing with the record company and wanting to have hits. It ended up being a #2 Billboard Top Hit for them, but also the last one of those they had.

Daytripper

Huge fan of these ladies. But I think it's unfair that they ignore most of their 80's work live these days. Only because they had a whole new generation of fans that decade and it's kind of a big F you to them when they go to see Heart expecting to hear those songs. I'll be the first to admit those 80's albums were not very good overall. However, that said, they spawned some really catchy singles. Not those awful balads or "All I Wanna Do Is Make Love to You". But "Never", "Who Will You Run To", "Nothin' At All", "If Looks Could Kill", "There's the Girl" and "Stranded" were all catchy and fun songs. In 1993 their popularity really dipped on MTV and radio when they released the album "Desire Walks On". Which peaked at only #48 on Billboard. But spawned what I think is one of Heart's best songs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZfXYHTmr2E

Original Desmond

Thanks for some of the great info on Heart guys

This is my favourite cover version of Alone

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ao9QmhN-KU4

UAIOE

That version of "Never" I was talking about:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IA9hHUF5Ncc

Stripped of the 80's cheese and its nice.

Original Desmond

very nice

sportsfan64

I was unaware that Ann & Nancy had a falling out earlier this year (2017). Ann's husband allegedly assaulted Nancy's kids on their tour bus. http://ultimateclassicrock.com/deen-...enced-assault/
They finished the tour under extreme circumstances and are now on "hiatus".
Nancy has formed a new band called "Roadcase Royale" with former Prince band member Liv Warfield.
https://www.amazon.com/First-Things-...oadcase+royale

creekdipper

Still have a soft spot for Mistral Wind. Great riffs, and as one comment says, when the band kicks in just after the 2:20 mark, the Led Zep vibe is apparent.

This live version from '78 shows what a great show they put on.