I thought "Bebe Le Strange" was a terrible album. I really like the mid-late 80s pop music. An unpopular opinion around here, but I don't care. I can't even look at Phil's revised album covers. I don't know what he was thinking, but he should have left them alone. He went into Michael Jackson territory. I hate to say this, but the one good thing that came out of MJ's demise is that we got the original "Off The Wall" cover back. Now, if the owners of the master recordings would only restore the original album mixes from "Bad" and "Off The Wall", even if as bonus tracks. That would be "Silver Wheels", and it was never intended to be part of the song "Crazy On You", but they perform it anyway because that's what the fans expect. "Silver Wheels" is actually part of the song "Dreamboat Annie". That song has a story of its own! Again, I have the unpopular opinion around here. I think the S/T "Heart" album and the next one after it are both excellent. We'll get to it in a bit, but I would have thought Ann and Nancy would have liked the "Bad Animals" album a bit more. I hear "Never" all the time, both mixes.
Heart - These Dreams I actually bought the album after hearing If Looks Could Kill on the Tommy Vance Friday Rock show. These Dreams is probably the lesser of the batch of singles released of Heart but its still excelent. Btw...it was a good year or so before the UK started to take notice. They were still having hits of this album in '87 over here. 4/5
These Dreams Although this is far from "Magic Man" or "Barracuda", it's not bad for '80s corporate Heart. I like Nancy's soft feminine voice on this. The long streak of dull number ones isn't exactly ended by this, though.
Wow, you're totally right I hope Phil doesn't have a stipulation in his will that they put deceased photos of him on the covers of his albums after he dies.
"These Dreams" is another adult contemporary ballad that sounds all right; I remember it well. I always laugh when Nancy sings "every second OF THE NIGHT!!", all rock-chick style. Hearing that she has a cold makes sense.
I like Heart and I like “These Dreams.” I mentioned before that I was a big Heart fan when I was in High School in the 1970s. I owned their first four albums and saw them in concert 3 times. So, I was glad to see them back on top. I know a lot of people don’t like their mid-80s hits, but I do...even though I like their classic 1970s material much more. I probably like “These Dreams” the best of their 1980s hits, which is surprising to me because I love Ann Wilson’s voice, but this was sung by her sister Nancy (I think)
To me, "These Dreams" just sounds so generic. I mean it's pleasant I suppose but sounds like something that is playing in the background at someone's work.
"These Dreams" Of the four singles from Heart, this is probably my least favorite, but it's still decent. I like "Nothing At All," with the black panther prowling the streets in the video and Nancy trying on all those different outfits. Kind of ironic that their first #1 was sung by the sister who usually doesn't sing lead very often, but I really think they deserved their success. I certainly never changed the channel when those two appeared on MTV. I saw them live a few years ago and they were really good, certainly better than openers Joan Jett and Cheap Trick (which surprised me as I'd always heard how CT was so great live). And Nancy still looks good!
Thanks for posting that link. I spent about 2 hours last night reading some of these. The way the site seems to be set up, I've decided to work backwards from '86 to '58 but am not even to '85 yet.
No one is as disparaging of Heart's 80s hits as Heart themselves. Ann and Nancy have said in interviews that they dislike most of the 80s hits. Even when I saw them live 2 or so years ago, the bulk of the setlist were from 1976-1980 and the three 80s hits performed (this one, What About Love and their next chart topper) were radically changed to where my husband didn't even realize it was These Dreams. I was a little bummed because while these songs were glossy, the 80s overproduction was part of the charm, just like when I saw ZZ Top but they kept the 80s sound when performing those songs though they stopped using the synthesizers in the 90s in the studio
Like many here, I prefer 70s Heart. However, I do have a soft spot for "These Dreams". Nancy Wilson turns in an excellent vocal performance here and the arrangement suits her voice perfectly.
Heart following Starship at #1 shows how big a trend it became during the second half of the 80s where artists who'd fallen off the radar a bit would roar back with big hair, big production and outside songwriters. It could be argued it started with Chicago in 1982 but it really took off around 1985. Besides the aforementioned, it would also return Aerosmith (in a spectacular run that lasted into the early 2000s and eclipsed their 70s run), Cheap Trick, Cher, Kiss, Alice Cooper to name a few more back into the upper regions on Billboard
Chicago's early 80s chart renaissance seems to have been a little precursor to this, but it felt more smooth and professional in a sense. But they would definitely latch on to the big hair, big voice, big chart success power ballad bandwagon after Cetera's departure.
That's not going to stop me from liking their 80s hits. I think perhaps they don't like the 80s material because they didn't write a lot of it. because, when I listen to their 80-s music side by side, they are still the same band. The sound aesthetics just changed a little. They rocked hard in both eras. Both eras had their ballads and slick productions. I'd say that the only real difference between the 70s and the 80s is that the songs were tightened up in the 80s. The 80s songs didn't have those long instrumental mid-sections they were famous for. So, I agree with @Wild Horse in this case. And, I agree about ZZ Top. The "Afterburner" album was terrible. Keyboards didn't work for them.
Whitesnake did not use outside songwriters. They were all band members at the time of when they were written. Yes big hair and big production they had but they didn't use song doctor's like the other bands mentioned did.
And it was totally accurate! A buddy of mine worked on Wall Street at the time and he says that not only did Working Girl nail the enormous hair, but that if anything it was understated. Every time he sees it pop up on TV he cracks up laughing.
That, I think, explains the antipathy among a good number of music fans of a certain age to a lot of "legacy" acts' '80's works (i.e. the two "Starship" Number Ones up to this point, besides this Heart topper) - the "didn't write their own material" factor, as much as the '80's production values.
I know this is sacrilege, but I always loved the big hairstyles women wore in the 1980s. Thought they were very sexy...still do.
