What do you think?
Rate this book
Heart: In the Studio
With more Top 10 hits than any other female-fronted music group in history, beginning with such ’70s classics as “Crazy on You,” “Barracuda,’” “Magic Man,” and “Straight On,” Rolling Stone hailed Heart’s “sister team of Nancy and Ann Wilson…[for] shrewdly pulling off a Led Zep role reversal,” while still succeeding in mainstream Top 40 Radio. The band rode a second wave of even greater commercial success throughout the 1980s, producing such smash hits as “These Dreams,’” “Who You Gonna Run To?”, “Alone,” “Never,” “Stranded,” “There’s the Girl,” “What About Love?”, and “All I Wanna Do (Is Make Love to You)”, going on to sell a cumulative 30+ million albums worldwide! Now, for the first time, inside the pages of Heart: In the Studio, fans get the V.I.P. access behind the scenes of the writing and recording of all of Heart’s hit albums and smash singles! This title features exclusive interviews with band leaders Ann and Nancy Wilson, longtime guitarist Howard Leese, as well as with producers Mike Flicker, Ron Nevison, Keith Olsen, and Ritchie Zito. This study of Heart’s hit-making process in the studio is the first of its kind, and sure to be a must-have for any Heart fan!
- GenresMusic
280 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 2008
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
January 7, 2024
This book is basically what it says on the tin- an overview of the band Heart's career as recording artists. It's a little slight, but more or less delivers on what it promises.
There's new interview material with the Wilson sisters in here, but evidently either the interviews they provided were too short, or their specific memories of the recording process of each album too slight (not inexcusable, given how long ago most of them were), that they don't pop into the text very often. The dominant voices are those of Sue Ennis (the Wilson sisters' lifelong friend and frequent cowriter), Howard Leese (guitarist/keyboardist/arranger in Heart from 1975 to 1998), and the producers of their records- Mike Flicker, Keith Olsen, Ron Nevison, Richie Zito, Duane Baron, Craig Bartock, Ben Mink.
The interviews can sometimes ramble a bit- a stronger editorial hand would've benefitted the book. But, on the other hand, this much first-hand testimony is very valuable, and it's hard to turn it up.
The producers, especially, can be quite blunt about the band and its dynamics in a way that contrasts strongly with Ann and Nancy's memoir (Kicking and Dreaming)- Mike Flicker noting that he would've been happy signing just the Wilson sisters, but felt obligated to recruit the whole band, as the sisters were in relationships with the band's manager and lead guitarist; Keith Olsen calling Nancy Wilson an "adequate" guitarist (not as an insult, just meaning that she was skilled enough to operate in the studio, but not a world-class talent), Ron Nevison outlining his efficient hit-making production process and how he applied it to the band. The book is also notable in that it details a lot of the work and deliberate artistic decisions that went into Heart's Capitol albums of the 1985-91, a period that the Wilson sisters' book prefers to gloss over as a blur of excess and cocaine; in particular, Leese actually prefers the late-80s albums to what came before, in strong contrast to the Wilsons' feelings.
These are the sort of insights you want, and the main thing that makes this book worth reading. The details of what gear they used to make different albums- the producers all remember quite a bit about things like microphones, mic placement, acoustics, etc, and Flicker in particular goes into a lot of detail- are also important, but probably mainly of interest to really hardcore fans and gearheads.
There are a bunch of typos, and a few slips and errors of fact. The most glaring is that Brown follows interviewee Ron Nevison in mis-identifying the Peter Wolf who worked with Heart (an Austrian-American producer and keyboardist) with the Peter Wolf who was a member of the J. Geils Band. There are some places where interviewees provide contrasting or even contradictory accounts of an event, and Brown doesn't really even try to reconcile them; they are presented as they are. This is all tolerable- things to keep in mind while reading, rather than disqualifying problems.
As a coherent history of Heart the band, Kicking and Dreaming is more lucid and consistent, but this is a useful companion piece, filling in certain areas that are outside the scope of the memoir.
There's new interview material with the Wilson sisters in here, but evidently either the interviews they provided were too short, or their specific memories of the recording process of each album too slight (not inexcusable, given how long ago most of them were), that they don't pop into the text very often. The dominant voices are those of Sue Ennis (the Wilson sisters' lifelong friend and frequent cowriter), Howard Leese (guitarist/keyboardist/arranger in Heart from 1975 to 1998), and the producers of their records- Mike Flicker, Keith Olsen, Ron Nevison, Richie Zito, Duane Baron, Craig Bartock, Ben Mink.
The interviews can sometimes ramble a bit- a stronger editorial hand would've benefitted the book. But, on the other hand, this much first-hand testimony is very valuable, and it's hard to turn it up.
The producers, especially, can be quite blunt about the band and its dynamics in a way that contrasts strongly with Ann and Nancy's memoir (Kicking and Dreaming)- Mike Flicker noting that he would've been happy signing just the Wilson sisters, but felt obligated to recruit the whole band, as the sisters were in relationships with the band's manager and lead guitarist; Keith Olsen calling Nancy Wilson an "adequate" guitarist (not as an insult, just meaning that she was skilled enough to operate in the studio, but not a world-class talent), Ron Nevison outlining his efficient hit-making production process and how he applied it to the band. The book is also notable in that it details a lot of the work and deliberate artistic decisions that went into Heart's Capitol albums of the 1985-91, a period that the Wilson sisters' book prefers to gloss over as a blur of excess and cocaine; in particular, Leese actually prefers the late-80s albums to what came before, in strong contrast to the Wilsons' feelings.
These are the sort of insights you want, and the main thing that makes this book worth reading. The details of what gear they used to make different albums- the producers all remember quite a bit about things like microphones, mic placement, acoustics, etc, and Flicker in particular goes into a lot of detail- are also important, but probably mainly of interest to really hardcore fans and gearheads.
There are a bunch of typos, and a few slips and errors of fact. The most glaring is that Brown follows interviewee Ron Nevison in mis-identifying the Peter Wolf who worked with Heart (an Austrian-American producer and keyboardist) with the Peter Wolf who was a member of the J. Geils Band. There are some places where interviewees provide contrasting or even contradictory accounts of an event, and Brown doesn't really even try to reconcile them; they are presented as they are. This is all tolerable- things to keep in mind while reading, rather than disqualifying problems.
As a coherent history of Heart the band, Kicking and Dreaming is more lucid and consistent, but this is a useful companion piece, filling in certain areas that are outside the scope of the memoir.
August 18, 2012
A fine glossy cover encapsulates this 'music-making' tome which illustrates the trials and tribulations of the creative process that the first sisters of rock - Ann & Nancy Wilson - had to endure with their legendary band, 'Heart'. The book briefly sheds a little light on the sisters' early beginnings as singers and musicians with their family, and subsequently takes us on a musical album by album journey more or less up to 2010 (just before the release of the critically-acclaimed, 'Red Velvet Car'). The styles, the attitudes, the chemistry, and the wonderful music-making including the technical aspects are all present. 'Heart: In the Studio' depicts an interesting insight into Ann & Nancy's transformation from their early rock, folk and blues amalgamations thru their eighties onslaught of commercial soft rock and power ballads and back again into nineties and beyond. This is a fine companion-piece to their upcoming memoir: 'Kicking & Dreaming: A Story of Heart, Soul and Rock & Roll' (Due September 18th, 2012).
May 25, 2009
If you are interested in knowing what mics and guitars were used on each and every Heart album then this book is for you. The author goes into pain-staking details about the placement of mics on drums to get a certain sound and what make/model of mic and...it gets pretty dull after the first couple of chapters.
If you are interested in the band - specifically Ann and Nancy - you'll not find a whole lot of detail in this overly technical piece of writing. Everything covered here was covered in the VH1 Behind the Music and probably done more effectively.
If you are interested in the band - specifically Ann and Nancy - you'll not find a whole lot of detail in this overly technical piece of writing. Everything covered here was covered in the VH1 Behind the Music and probably done more effectively.
January 24, 2012
This book is not particularly well written, but it is an exhaustive, detailed look at what went into the recording of the entire Heart and Wilson sisters catalog to this point. I have been a fan since the beginning, so I enjoyed most of the minutia.
August 30, 2012
It's been awhile since I read this book, but I am a Heart fanatic, so I greatly enjoyed it. Really goes in depth about Ann and Nancy's musical past, upbringing, and their careers as the first sisters of rock and roll. This makes me look forward even more to Ann and Nancy's memoir.
August 2, 2015
An overview of all the albums Heart made through 2008. Some interesting details on how a band works in the studio and all the various producers are quoted extensively but, at times, just a bit too technical.
May 25, 2011
Not so much a band history as more a album guide of how each album and image was created. Very well written.
April 17, 2016
Great stories.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews