Heart Album: “Heart Greatest Hits: Live”

Four years and five albums into their career, the Seattle quintet led by those fiesty rock angel/devils the Wilson sisters, released a greatest hits collection (originally a double album) featuring singles on one record, live and new studio material on the other. Had they waited two more albums and included material from Private Audition and Passionworks, this would be a complete Sony/Epic compilation.

The selection of studio singles is reasonable, although again, I wonder why "Even It Up" had to be a single. The sequence of the ferocious and biting "Barracuda," gentle acoustic interlude "Silver Wheels" and galloping bluesy-rock of "Crazy On You" demonstrates the repertoire they established, be it rocking demons or softly singing angels. With "Magic Man" and "Heartless," their blues roots show through, and it's dreamy ballads like "Dog & Butterfly" that show that other side of them.

Then comes the live material, taken from various venues between August and September 1980, including LA, Seattle, and Las Vegas. A rousing version of "Bebe Le Strange" outdoes the original studio recording, especially the chugging guitar solo accompanying the "Ah, rock baby" segment.

Within the live material is their cover of Aaron Neville's ballad "Tell It Like It Is", which became at that time their highest charting single. I like it but it seems unjust that considering their rock roots, they had to do something pop, complete with horns, to crack the Top Ten once again. At least that fiery guitar solo rockified it a little.

A live version of "Mistral Wind" from Dog & Butterfly follows, and the guitar solo is like a blistering rock tidal wave, over which Ann lets loose with all emotion. I wonder if there were any lighters waving during this song.

The same is true for "Sweet Darlin'," which highlights Ann's vocal talents. Despite the kind of even distribution of songs in the studio songs section, this is clearly a showcase for Bebe Le Strange.

Then comes three cover songs, heralded by Ann's singing, "We're going to do old rock and roll for you. Is everybody feeling alright?" They do a rollicking and rocking medley of the Beatles' "I'm Down" and Little Richard's "Long Tall Sally." Ann is a real hellcat on the latter.

The album closes with a barn-burning version of Led Zeppelin's "Rock And Roll" as a dedication to John Bonham, who had died that same year. Fitting, as Zeppelin was a prime influence of theirs. And hear those cheers when those legendary drum beats boom! Ann's strong vocal power is felt when she sings, "lonely lonely lonely" immediately before the drum solo. A fiery guitar solo and flurry of drums end this classic number.

Three recordings were deleted due to CD space limitations. While I have no quarrel with the deletion of a selection consisting of weird nonsense talk and the minimalist jam "Strange Euphoria", their cover of the Righteous Bros' "Unchained Melody" should have been included.

Next up would be an audition of a private kind. Stay tuned.

As with any rock group that has been around for many years, Heart has a number of collections. This one is one of the several collections you could own that serve different purposes. If you want to focus on Heart's early years, "Heart - Greatest Hits" mostly covers the early years of the group. "Heart - Greatest Hits - 1985 - 1995" covers Heart's later years, missing only the 2004 release of "Jupiter's Darling." If you are looking for an overview of Heart's career, there are two collections, the two-disk "The Essential Heart," released in 2002, and this collection. "The Essential Heart" is a more comprehensive collection, and I recommend that one over this one. However, this collection is a second best behind that collection.

This collection has 17 songs over varying source. Some are live and some are variations from the original studio album releases. Here is a brief overview of the songs, their album, and their chart position in the United States:

(1) Crazy on You: from Dreamboat Annie; highest chart position: #35.

(2) All I Wanna Do Is Make Love to You: from Brigade; highest chart position: #2.

(3) If Looks Could Kill: from Heart; highest chart position: #54.

(4) Never: from Heart; highest chart position: #4.

(5) Alone: from Bad Animals; highest chart position: #1.

(6) Who Will You Run To: from Bad Animals; highest chart position: #7.

(7) Straight On (Acoustic): original from Dog and Butterfly; highest chart position: #15.

(8) Magic Man: from Dreamboat Annie; highest chart position #9.

(9) What About Love: from Heart; highest chart position #10.

(10) Dreamboat Annie: from Dreamboat Annie; highest chart position #42.

(11) Dog and Butterfly (Acoustic): original from Dog and Butterfly; highest chart position #34.

(12) Nothin' at All: from Heart; highest chart position #10.

(13) Heartless: from Magazine; highest chart position #24.

(14) Stranded: from Brigade; highest chart position #13.

(15) Will You Be There (In the Morning): from Desire Walks On; highest chart position #39.

(16) These Dreams: from Heart; highest chart position #1.

(17) Barracuda (Live): original from Little Queen; highest chart position #11.

I am a big fan of Heart and love their vocals and their music. Heart was one of my favorite groups in the mid to late 1970's, and one of the few successful hard rock groups led by women. In the 1980's the group mellowed and aimed for more of a pop audience, but they still managed to knock out some wonderful songs, and their voices are incredibly distinctive. Heart is much more low profile these days, but "Jupiter's Child" got generally good reviews from fans.

If you are looking for a good overview of Heart's career, the two best choices at the time of this review are this CD and "The Essential Heart." I do recommend the latter album, but this one is a good second choice. This CD can be purchased for significantly less than the latter CD, and is more focused on hits, and may be a good choice for many customers.

Enjoy!

In November of 1980, Heart released their sixth album entitled, GREATEST HITS LIVE. This album, obviously, is Heart's first greatest hits compilation. The first nine tracks on this album are Heart's studio recorded greatest hits from the first five albums. There are three more of Heart's greatest hits included here, but those three hits are live performances from different concerts. And there are six new tracks on this album, where only five of them are live performances from different concerts, where the sixth new song is studio recorded. Read on for the info.

BARRACUDA

From the album LITTLE QUEEN (1977). Still an ultimate Heart classic.

SILVER WHEELS (Instrumental)

From the album BEBE LE STRANGE (1980). This song was never released as a single, but I'm guessing that Heart liked it so much, for they had to include it here. Not a bad instrumental piece.

CRAZY ON YOU

From the album DREAMBOAT ANNIE (1976). A great song.

STRAIGHT ON

From the album DOG & BUTTERFLY (1978). Awesome tune.

DREAMBOAT ANNIE

From the album DREAMBOAT ANNIE (1976). Ah, the infamous relaxing title track to their 1976 debut album. Love this song.

EVEN IT UP

From the album BEBE LE STRANGE (1980). Great song.

MAGIC MAN

From the album DREAMBOAT ANNIE (1976). Killer tune.

HEARTLESS

From the album MAGAZINE (1978). A good song, but not a favorite of mine.

DOG & BUTTERFLY

From the album DOG & BUTTERFLY (1978). Great song.

BEBE LE STRANGE (Live)

Original version from the album BEBE LE STRANGE (1980). I loved the original recording, and this live performances matches up with the original recording perfectly.

TELL IT LIKE IT IS

New song. The first single from the album. Blah.

MISTRAL WIND (Live)

Original version from the album DOG & BUTTERFLY (1978). Incredible live performance.

HIT SINGLE (Live) (Vinyl edition only)

New song. This track was deleted from the CD & Cassette editions because of CD Limitations. This would be the first of three selections deleted from the CD edition.

STRANGE EUROPHORIA (Live) (Vinyl edition only)

New song. Deleted song #2.

SWEET DARLIN' (Live)

Original version from the album BEBE LE STRANGE (1980). Not a bad performance.

UNCHAINED MELODY (Live) (Vinyl edition only)

New song. The second single from the album. I hate The Righteous Brothers' version, but I do like the way Heart does it here. Deleted song #3.

Medley: I'M DOWN/LONG TALL SALLY (Live)

This is a great performance.

ROCK AND ROLL (Live)

The third & final single from the album. I hate Led Zepplin and their music, but Heart's live rendition is just incredible. Just so you know, the members of Heart were huge Led Zepplin fans. Because of how in many of Heart's songs, Heart sounds like Led Zepplin, which is why the member of Led Zepplin call Heart, "Little Led Zepplin".

This is a great compilation to have. It gives you nothing, but the greatest of Heart from their first five albums, from 1976 to 1980. Great buy here.

This is a good CD for someone that has had a taste of Heart to complete their Best Of- collection. Tracks are taken from Little Queen, Bebe Le Strange, Dreamboat Annie, Dog & Butterfly, Magazine, and several live preformances. The CD version, however, has 3 fewer songs than the two LP (vinyl) set. (The 3 missing songs are: Hit Single, Strange Euphoria, and Unchained Melody.)

If you're a Heart Fan, this is a great addition to your CD library. For the serious collector, while there are tracks here that you can't get anywhere else, I suggest that you find the vinyl version.

I have worshipped this band since I was in grade school!(the70's -ugh.)

Ann Wilson's voice is nothing but incredible and just rips thru you! Every song I have ever heard by HEART is genius which is hard to say for alot of the bands in present times!

HEART is a rock & roll gift!!!!