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Our 10 Most Underrated Heart Songs list presents a showcase of Heart songs that we think deserve a little more love. Heart stands as one of our favorite bands here at Classic Rock History. From the first time we heard “Magic Man” in 1976 up to the most recent recordings, the band has always been one of our most often written about musical groups.
The musicians in the band have changed many times over the years. Initially, it was a group effort, but inevitably there were personnel changes and a radical reformation and transformation of Ann and Nancy’s music in the mid-’80s, when their record company decided to turn them into worldwide musical stars. Not everybody accepted and enjoyed that shift in their music, and eventually, Ann and Nancy took a step back and returned to the more organic sound that their true fans originally fell in love with. We pretty much enjoyed it all, anyway. This list picks out 10 of our favorites that are definitely not the most popular Heart songs, but still killer tunes that we’ve chosen across their entire body of work.
# 10 – “Death Valley” – Red Velvet Car
Now this is the way to open up our Most Underrated Heart Songs list. There’s nothing like some down-and-dirty, gritty Heart music. Red Velvet Car was a fantastic Heart album released in 2010. The song “Death Valley” also featured a guest appearance by Geddy Lee of Rush. We love that creepy, grungy guitar lick on this tune. Ann and Nancy sound great as always. If you don’t have this Heart album, you’re missing out on a real gem.
# 9 – “Black On Black II” – Desire Walks On
Continuing with our 10 Most Underrated Heart Songs list, we showcase a heavy rocker featured on Heart’s Desire Walks On album. The track “Black on Black II” has a bit of a “Barracuda” feel in its main riff. However, it’s also fueled by more laid-back verses that dance across a bit of a modern ’90s, almost industrial-style vibe. It’s a cool mix and an interesting sound that was delivered by the band during the peak of the grunge era. The album featured the great Denny Carmassi on drums, who had been with the band since the early ’80s. Carmassi was a former member of Montrose and has often worked with Sammy Hagar who was his former Montrose bandmate. Additionally, on guitar was the long-standing member Howard Leese.
# 8 – Cruel Tears – B-Side
In the number eight spot on our 10 Most Underrated Heart Songs list, we present this pretty rare track called “Cruel Tears.” This song never made it onto any Heart albums. It was released as the B-side to “All I Want to Do” in the United Kingdom only. It was also released on the Japanese bonus mini-CD edition of Brigade. The song didn’t even make it to the Heart box set Strange Euphoria, which contains a lot of unreleased Heart songs.
# 7 – Skin And Bones – Fanatic
Now this is a really cool song. The arrangement is sparse, but it’s perfect for the song. Ann Wilson is upfront and personal, the guitar riff is nasty, and then it explodes all over the place about a minute in. The song was released on their amazing rock album called Fanatic. I just love the cover. It reminds me of the Bebe Le Strange cover in certain ways. Fanatic was released in 2012. We would have picked the title track, but that one did pretty well as far as popularity goes and probably shouldn’t be claimed as underrated.
# 6 – Cook With Fire – Dog & Butterfly
I’ve never understood why Heart, or at least the producer of the record, chose to place a fake live audience at the beginning of this song. It was pretty obvious, once the crowd noise was drowned out, that this was a studio recording. I’m not sure of the reason behind it—perhaps it was to create a little excitement or who knows. Nonetheless, I would have always loved to have heard this song from the beginning without the crowd noise because it’s a pretty great rock and roll tune. It opened up the band’s Dog and Butterfly album. This album has a pretty soft sound overall and is filled mostly with ballads, so “Cook with Fire” pretty much stood out on this album, along with “Straight On” as the rockers. Although the ballads were pretty good too, especially “Mistral Wind” and “Lighter Touch,” which were pretty high-energy ballads.
# 5 – Dream Of The Archer – Little Queen
Heart put on their Led Zeppelin shoes for this one, and they fit well. It was no secret that Led Zeppelin had a heavy influence on the Wilson sisters. I mean, for Page’s sake, Zeppelin had a strong influence on everyone in the ’70s. This “Misty Mountain Hop”-inspired song was released on their majestic second album, Little Queen. So many great tracks filled this album, including, of course, the massive hit “Barracuda” as well as “Little Queen,” “Kick It Out,” and “Love Alive.”
# 4 – White Lightning And Wine – Dreamboat Annie
One might argue that you really can’t pick an underrated song from the band’s debut album Dreamboat Annie because of the album’s popularity. And whoever that person is that wants to argue that point, they just very well may be right. Nonetheless, if we take a look back at their debut album, we find that there were four singles released from the record. The initial single, “How Deep It Goes,” didn’t really chart well or do much. Most people don’t even remember that song. However, it was the second single, “Magic Man,” that turned most people on to this band for the first time.
The third single, “Crazy On You,” was loved even more by most fans, and then again there was the fourth single, the title track “Dreamboat Annie,” which was just a wonderful Heart song. Nonetheless, “White Lightning and Wine” was never released as a single and I don’t remember it getting that much airplay when the album was first released. So in the end, it gets our pick to be placed on this list, and it’s pretty high up.
# 3 – Make Me – Jupiter’s Darling
It’s hard to believe that Heart’s Jupiter’s Darling album is now twenty years old. My goodness, where does the time go? Nevertheless, I remember buying this album in 2004 and being totally blown away by the opening track. This sound was like the old Heart from Dreamboat Annie. I don’t know why this album or song did not do well. Bands like Heart were just not being promoted heavily in the early 2000s in the wake of all those boy bands and teeny bopper pop artists. The album also featured guest appearances by Jerry Cantrell of Alice in Chains and Mike McCready of Pearl Jam.
# 2 – Raised On You – Bébé le Strange
Just off the top spot on our 10 Most Underrated Heart Songs list is the striking Nancy Wilson-sung track called “Raised on You.” The song was released on the band’s fourth studio album, Bebe le Strange. This album, released in 1980, was a significant success for the band, performing well on the music charts. It was fueled by the huge hit single “Even It Up,” which became a Top 40 hit on the US Billboard 200, peaking at number 33. “Raised on You” was actually the second single released from the album, but it didn’t perform well on the charts at all, for whatever reasons. We think it’s one of the best songs the band ever released and one of our favorites of all time sung by Nancy. It scores pretty high on our list.
# 1 – City’s Burning – Private Audition
We close out our 10 Most Underrated Heart Songs list with one of our all-time favorite Heart songs called “City’s Burning.” The song was released on the album entitled Private Audition. This album, released in 1982, was one of the band’s least successful albums and quickly went out of print for a very long time, which actually made it a highly sought-after collector’s item, fetching really high prices on places like Amazon and eBay. Nonetheless, this album spawned the singles “This Man is Mine” and “Bright Light Girl.” These were not really the rockers that Heart fans had come to love.
The album’s opening track, “City’s Burning,” was definitely the most rocking song on the record. It got rotation on MTV as it was one of the first videos ever made by the band. It was a captivating video, as both Ann and Nancy did a great job performing in it. According to Ann Wilson, the song was originally inspired by the murder of John Lennon and all the sadness that surrounded those days. If you’re unfamiliar with this track, make sure to hit play on the video below. It’s a very low-budget video, but that’s what most videos were like early on.
Read more of our fun Heart articles on the site……
Heart Plays First Concert In Almost Five Years
Complete List Of Heart Band Members
Complete List Of Heart Albums And Discography
Heart’s Stunning Performance of Stairway To Heaven Must Be Heard
Heart Beautiful Broken: Album Review
10 Most Underrated Heart Songs article published on Classic RockHistory.com© 2024
Two Heart songs that I love are both rocking songs that I’ve never heard on the radio. They are Wild Child and The Wolf. I would love for them to be added onto their concert list.
I agree Linda, those are great rocking songs from the mid 80s period. Thanks for coming to the site and adding wonderfully to the conversation.