I listen to lots of music. My profile on last.fm shows that I’ve scrobbled (i.e. played and tracked in the last.fm database) over 120,000 tracks since I joined the site in 2007 (an average of 88 tracks per day—that’s only what I’ve played on my computer, and doesn’t count the tracks I listen to on my MP3 player at work). I first got heavily into popular music starting in the early 70s, and haven’t quit loving it yet. Music helps me focus—if I don’t have it piping into my ears while I’m trying to write software or fiction, I feel like something is not quite right with the world.

As those who read all my posts know, I’m a big fan of Fefe Dobson, and I posted her Ghost video here on my blog as soon as it came out. And while Fefe is my favorite solo artist of the past decade, she’s not my favorite musical act of all time. That honor goes to a group with a much larger body of work, and who has been around since about the time I started listening to pop music, top 40 hits, and rock ‘n’ roll. Thanks to YouTube, I can bring this group and their music to your attention, if you aren’t already aware of them, or otherwise remind you about them and the fact that they have a new album out even now. Take one guess which group I’m talking about…

I’m talking about Heart, a group whose most prominent members are the Wilson sisters, Ann and Nancy. They’ve had some great musicians accompanying them along the way, but these two women have pretty much defined the group since the release of their album Dreamboat Annie. Here’s my favorite song from Dreamboat Annie, a Top 10 hit from 1976, and quite possibly my single favorite song of all time. I absolutely love the studio version of this song, but this extended live version is excellent too.

“Magic Man” (recorded live on The Second Ending TV show):

Several more albums have followed the release of Dreamboat Annie. I like pretty much all of the music Heart released in the 70s. I’m not so keen on their early 80s music, but they hit their stride again in the mid 80s. In 1987 they released the album Bad Animals, which contains a #1 track that sends chills through me practically every time I listen to it. Ann Wilson’s vocals are amazing.

“Alone” (studio version):

Also on Bad Animals is my favorite Heart track where Nancy is the lead vocalist. This song reached #12 on the charts in 1987.

“There’s the Girl” (studio version):

In 1990, Heart released Brigade. The most popular track from that album was “All I Wanna Do is Make Love to You,” and it is excellent, but my two favorite tracks from the album are “Call of the Wild” and the following track…

“Wild Child” (live version):

And in 1993, Heart kept it coming with the release of Desire Walks On. The more popular songs from that album were “Will You Be There (In the Morning)” and “Black on Black II,” and while I enjoy those tracks, I have a different favorite track from that album:

“Rage” (studio version of audio laid over a static image of the album cover):

After Desire Walks On, Heart didn’t release any new albums for a while. I wanted more from them, and had given up hope of another album when in 2004 Heart released Jupiters Darling. Unfortunately, that album wasn’t what I had hoped for, and I resigned myself to be happy with the music they had released previously. But Ann and Nancy weren’t done yet, as they proved with a live appearance on television in 2008. Here they are, singing one of their classics from the 70s, with a little help from Fergie—a rocker hiding within a hip-hop star.

“Barracuda” (live on American Idol with Fergie):

Now it’s 2010, and Heart is back. They released their latest album, Red Velvet Car, on August 31, 2010. It debuted on the Billboard 200 at position #10, which is quite a feat for older rockers these days. This album has what I was hoping for from Heart and didn’t get back in 2004. The album includes both soft ballads and hard rock tracks. My favorite track is “Death Valley,” but I couldn’t find it on YouTube yet, not even as an audio track laid over the album cover. But here’s another favorite track, albeit the video leaves much to be desired visually (I prefer to see the artists performing rather than an animation of graphics, but this is about the music, not the visuals).

“Wheels” (studio version of the audio with animated graphics):

That’s all of the Heart music I’ll push on you. If you want to hear more, you can find plenty more Heart videos on YouTube. You can also find plenty of Heart albums for sale, either on CD or as MP3s. If you are looking for a greatest hits album that has a lot of their best stuff before Red Velvet Car, I’d recommend the following (although it doesn’t have “Call of the Wild”):

Essential Heart (CD)

Essential Heart (MP3 Album)

And then of course there’s Red Velvet Car:

Red Velvet Car (CD)

Red Velvet Car (MP3 Album +video)

If you haven’t listened to Heart before, I hope I have convinced you to give their music a try. If you have heard them before, I hope you’ll give their new album a listen if you haven’t already. In any case, I’ll be listening to their music for as long as my Heart beats, and I hope that’s for a long time to come.