The one album that made Ann Wilson of Heart want to be a singer: “From when I was just a little kid”
The flexibility of Heart singer Ann Wilson has made her extremely adaptable.
Across five decades in the music business, Wilson has sung hard rock, folk, pop, hair metal, and just about every genre in between. All the while, her signature belting tones and wide range have secured her place as one of rock’s greatest vocalists.
To be considered one of the best in a field that is so heavily saturated is to really have established yourself in the rock world. Wilson might not be a name that casual listeners know instantly, but as soon as her dulcet tones hit the airwaves, there can be no doubt they will never forget them.
Being the singer in a rock band usually means being drenched in bravado, ensuring that ego is gilded in swaggering style and adding a big dose of panache at every single turn. Wilson managed to do it all while still holding her greatest asset, her voice, highest of all. But how did Wilson get interested in singing in the first place?
The answer might surprise you. Like all singers, Wilson didn’t have the choice to seek out her favourite music at an early age. Instead, she had to listen to whatever was around the house at the time. As she and her sister Nancy took in everything from blues to classical music, there was one record that made Wilson fall in love with the concept of singing: Harry Belafonte’s Belafonte at Carnegie Hall.
“This next one is kind of left field,” Wilson told Goldmine Magazine while listing some of her favourite albums. “It’s from when I was just a little kid, like maybe seven, eight years old. My parents had that record, and they played it all the time. The level of singing that he does on that record just wormed its way into my little child’s brain, and I think that’s one of the things that made me want to be a singer.”
Wilson had a classic selection of rock royalty from the genre’s first generation. That includes softer folk picks like Simon & Garfunkel’s Bookends, dirty blues like The Rolling Stones’ Sticky Fingers, and esoteric progressive rock like The Moody Blues’ In Search of the Lost Chord. She also had the one album that could be all three at the same time: Led Zeppelin IV.
“Of course, definitely Led Zeppelin IV. I just think that they were at the peak of their songwriting and their lyric writing, especially (Robert) Plant’s lyric writing. You can’t beat a record that has ‘Stairway to Heaven’, ‘(The) Battle of Evermore’, ‘Going to California’ and ‘Black Dog’ on it. Every single song is just so great.”
Wilson’s love of Led Zeppelin is well-documented. Across their career, Heart have frequently included Zeppelin covers in their live repertoire. That all came to a head when they asked to perform ‘Stairway to Heaven’ in front of the band members themselves when they were given Kennedy Center Honours in 2012. Even Robert Plant, whose distaste for ‘Stairway’ is equally well-documented, had to stand up and cheer for their rendition.
Watch Heart perform ‘Stairway to Heaven’ down below.
