Songoftheday 6/13/12 - I know it's a matter of time, till one of you steps out of line...

Heart - "This Man Is Mine"

from the album Private Audition (1982)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #33 (two weeks)

Weeks in the top-40: 4

Today's song of the day is by the rock group Heart, led by sisters Ann and Nancy Wilson. Actually the group's first incarnation, under the names "The Army" and "White Heart", didn't include either of the sisters, but after both of the sister became involved with two brothers in the band (one being a draft-dodger that caused the band to move to Canada), Heart was born.

Their debut album, Dreamboat Annie, broke them out of the box in 1974 with their first top-10 hit, "Magic Man". The group was a mainstay on album rock radio in the second half of the 70s, providing a much needed balance to the testosterone-filled arena-rock bands of the time without compromising any power whatsoever.

As the 80's came on, Mike Fisher (one of the brothers who romanced Nancy) left the band (he would later form Alias), and their Bebe Le Strange album wasn't quite as hard as before, and Heart scored their second top-ten pop hit with the uncharacteristically half-restrained version of Aaron Neville's "Tell It Like It Is". Their next album, Private Audition, took it a step farther, as the first single release from the album, "This Man Is Mine", firmly put them in the soft-rock camp like Linda Ronstadt was leaning towards.

I loved Heart. But at the time I hated this song. It seemed like such a fluff track that neutered Nancy's guitar and Ann's voice that I was dumbfounded. But I guess in 1981/1982 (when it was recorded and released) they were trying to fit in with radio at the time, and in limited form it worked - it spent a month in the top-40 and made the top-20 on the rock radio chart. A second album track, the superior "City's Coming", also made the rock top-20, but the album fizzled on pop radio after that. Possibly the relative failure of this and their followup album, Passionworks, that failed to place even a top-40 hit, caused the band to fracture totally, leaving the sisters without their bandmates save second guitarist/keyboardist Howard Leese. It's grown a little fonder to me, I guess, I can get their Motown-ish swagger, but, um, meh.

In 1985, after recruiting members and defining a sound under producer Ron Nevison, Heart 2.0 totally revived the group, with seven top-10 hits and two number ones - "These Dreams" (sung by Nancy) and "Alone" (sung by Ann).

The band and the Wilson sisters are still going strong, with a summer tour and a box set this year.

Up Tomorrow: Brooklyn singer wants you to lose your cherry, cherry..