There’s no way around it. For rock bands that became big in the ‘70s, the transition from that decade to the ‘80s was a struggle. In the late ‘70s, they had to contend with the challenges presented by disco and punk. If they were able to survive that, then they had to find a way to compete with (or succumb to) new wave in the early ‘80s. On top of all that, digital recording was changing the way that popular music was made and how it sounded.
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Heart’s Ann Wilson has referred to this period as “a clumsy little transitional era” for her band. A guitar-heavy sound and Wilson’s thunderous vocals made Heart the epitome of a classic rock band, but that sound had been rendered commercially obsolete as the ‘70s were drawing to a close. Heart spent a few years trying to find their place in this new environment. In the smack middle between their highly successful ‘70s run and their phenomenal mid-’80s comeback was their 1982 album Private Audition.
“It Just Wasn’t a Commercial Record”
Ann Wilson wasn’t especially critical of the album’s music or production, but she bemoaned its timing. In an interview conducted more than a year after Private Audition’s release, Wilson said, “The band was in a period of transition…and that was reflected on the record. It wasn’t a bad record. It just wasn’t a commercial record.” Private Audition did reach No. 25 on the Billboard 200. It also had a Top 40 hit with “This Man is Mine” (No. 33 on the Billboard Hot 100), and “City’s Burning” made it to No. 15 on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock chart. But it was the first Heart album to fall short of the Top 20. It was also the first that failed to get certified Gold or Platinum.
As it turns out, Ann and Nancy Wilson and company were dealing with more than just changes in the musical landscape. To understand why Private Audition was viewed as a misstep by at least one of the band’s members, we have to look at some of Heart’s history that preceded this album’s release.
The Lead-Up to Private Audition
The years preceding Private Audition were tumultuous for Heart. Guitarist and co-founder Roger Fisher was kicked out of the band prior to the recording of Bébé Le Strange, which was released in 1980. The same five-person version of Heart put out Greatest Hits/Live nine months later.
Despite the Double Platinum success of that album, Epic Records wanted Heart to find a new producer for their follow-up, which would be Private Audition. Though Jimmy Iovine and Bob Ezrin both spent time recording with Heart, they ultimately decided to keep the production in-house. Ann and Nancy Wilson co-produced the album with bandmate Howard Leese and long-time collaborator Sue Ennis (credited as “Connie and Howie”).
“Weren’t In Our Right Minds”
Of the Wilson sisters, it was Nancy who had the far more negative assessment of Private Audition. She has cited the change in producers as one reason for the album’s drop in quality from previous efforts. In a 2016 interview with Ultimate Classic Rock, she also noted that the band “probably weren’t in our right minds very well” during the recording of Private Audition. She added, “I know I was doing a lot of partying in those days.”
Heart was clearly looking for a new direction on Private Audition, but the album didn’t have the cohesion of their 1985 self-titled comeback album. “City’s Burning” gave Private Audition a promising beginning, with its leaner sound mixed with Heart’s trademark blend of electric and acoustic guitar. They pulled off stylistic departures, like the R&B-tinged “This Man Is Mine” and the moody “The Situation,” but it was hard for listeners to identify the band’s direction from this collection of songs. It’s not clear how much of the album’s hodgepodge nature was due to the band trying to adapt to changing tastes or how much was the band just not being fully present.
Production Was Also a Culprit
Another sign of a band being dissatisfied with an album is when they remix or re-record it years down the road. Heart never went to the full lengths of doing that with Private Audition, but on Beautiful Broken, they gave themselves a mulligan on several of their early ‘80s tracks. The 2016 album featured newly-recorded versions of two tracks from Private Audition—”City’s Burning” and “One Word.” Nancy Wilson co-produced Beautiful Broken with Dan Rothchild, and they had the intention of giving some of the songs from Heart’s transitional era a second chance. Wilson told the Arizona Republic, “A few of those songs just really struck me. Like, ‘Wow, those songs were so misunderstood production-wise.’”
On the remake of “City’s Burning,” the snarling guitar riff and gunshot snare effect have been replaced by a more organic sound palette that includes Hammond B3 organ and strings. “One Word” sounds fuller and dreamier. Early ‘80s audiences might not have been ready for these versions of the songs, but the remakes show that the originals had some untapped potential.
Learning From Mistakes
Heart would create a more cohesive album on their next effort, Passionworks. It would still take them one more try before they would create a major hit. Heart would be the band’s most successful album, selling more than 5 million copies in the U.S. It also included five hit singles, including their first one No. 1 song on the Billboard Hot 100, “These Dreams.” Their next two albums, Bad Animals and Brigade, also received multi-Platinum certifications.
Fans of Heart’s ‘70s albums, like Dreamboat Annie and Little Queen, may not have liked their more successful ‘80s and ‘90s releases any more than they did Private Audition. Regardless of which era may be your favorite, Heart deserves kudos for persisting in a circumstance that was difficult for most ‘70s rockers. Better yet, they learned from the mistakes that made Private Audition a commercial and critical disappointment.
(Photo by Vinnie Zuffante/Getty Images)
