Little Queen – Heart

Released in 1977 Little Queen was the follow-up to Heart’s hugely successful debut album Dreamboat Annie that had established the Canadian band as a force, off the back of the single Magic Man. It was a striking album that took the bands calling card – rock songs juxtaposed with folk songs to another level.

The rock song that set the tone for the album was of course Barracuda, an angry, rock guitar driven anthem that featured one of the great female rock vocal performances – probably of all time. Ann Wilson absolutely soars on this song and it pretty much establishes her credentials as a vocalist for all time.

It emerged later that the song was written as Wilson’s response to her realisation that their record label had been spreading titillating rumours that her and sister Nancy were in fact lesbian lovers. It’s little wonder that the song is as viciously venomous as it comes across.

The other killer rock song on the album is Kick It Out, a free spirited spiralling song that Wilson inhabits with great gusto.

But it’s the soft songs that gave Heart their added dimensions that won them a dedicated fanbase. As twee as it sounds now the idea of a mandolin instrumental (Sylvan Song) leading into a meandering romantic tale of a medieval archer wandering through the woods (Dream of The Archer) worked back beautifully in 1977. Combined with the cover shot of the two gorgeous sisters in gypsy-like period costume, it certainly worked for me!

Ballads like Love Alive and the delicate, yet aching Cry To Me were equally great vehicles for Ann’s superb vocal talents. She had an extraordinary ability to sound vulnerable and incredibly powerful simultaneously and even today she probably doesn’t get the recognition her talents deserve. Her free-styling on the largely instrumental Go On Cry (which closes the record in an almost concept album way) is another indication of her chops.

Nancy’s vocal on Treat Me Well isn’t as strident but she adds another layer to this album and as the guitar playing sister she added another dimension rather than both being purely vocalists.

Heart went on to make several more really strong albums in this vein (such as Dog & Butterfly and Bebe Le Strange) before taking a more chart oriented approach but it was Little Queen that showed that they had the depth of talent to launch a long career from the platform provided by Dreamboat Annie.

Little Queen still sounds great today.