The Heart Hit Originally Written for Don Henley That Ann Wilson Considered “Hideous”

By the late ’80s, Heart was still riding the wave of their ninth album Bad Animals, which went to No. 2 on the Billboard 200 with hits “Alone” and the Diane Warren-penned “Who Will You Run To.” When the duo began working on their tenth album, Brigade, it featured two songs written by Sammy Hagar, including “Fallen From Grace” and “The Night,” which the Wilsons co-wrote with the then-Van Halen frontman, along with another Warren contribution that hit to the top 40 (at No. 23), “I Didn’t Want to Need You.”

The album also featured another song, written by producer Robert John “Mutt” Lange, about a female who picks up a random man off the streets to fulfill her carnal needs.

“All I Wanna Do Is Make Love to You” was released as the lead single from Brigade and shot to No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1990. Despite its commercial success, the song was the sisters’ least favorite song and one they rarely performed live throughout the years.

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Don Henley Turned It Down

Lange originally wrote the song with more country twang before passing it to Don Henley, who turned it down. Eventually, it made its way to Heart, who felt pressured to record and release it, according to Ann Wilson in the liner notes for Heart’s 1995 live album The Road Home.

“Actually we had sworn off it because it kind of stood for everything we wanted to get away from,” said Wilson. “It was a song by ‘Mutt’ Lange, who we liked, and it was originally written for Don Henley, but there was a lot of pressure on us to do the song at the time.”

The “Hideous” Storyline

Though a song called “All I Want to Do Is Make Love to You” was first recorded in 1979 with different lyrics, Heart’s version told the story of a woman who seduces a hitchhiker so she can get pregnant since her partner is infertile.

So we found this hotel
It was a place I knew well
We made magic that night
Oh, he did everything right

He brought the woman out of me
So many times, easily
And in the mornin’ when he woke
All I left him was a note

I told him I am the flower, you are the seed
We walked in the garden, we planted a tree
Don’t try to find me, please don’t you dare
Just live in my memory, you’ll always be there

All I wanna do is make love to you
One night of love was all we knew
All wanna do is make love to you
I’ve got lovin’ arms to hold on to

“Like, you’re a hitchhiker, I don’t know you, so let’s get in the car and exchange fluids,” said Ann Wilson of the song in 2015. “And now, get out. I mean, that’s hideous.”

Banned in Ireland

Nancy Wilson revealed that they also changed the gender of the main character in the song, which was so “shocking” that it was banned in Ireland. “It was the story of a girl, a wanton lassie who picks up a guy at night,” said Nancy Wilson. He added, “For us, it had a great hook and it had a great sound, but for her Ann, it’s not her favorite song to sing.”

Regardless of their dislike of the song, Heart performed it dozens of times since 1987 and throughout the ’90s and for the last time in 2009 during a concert in Reading, Pennsylvania. Ann and Nancy Wilson also occasionally added the hit to their solo sets in 2017 and 2018, respectively.

“It’s an interesting thing about songs like that,” said Nancy of their 1990 hit. “Unless you’re Ann Wilson and you have to stand there and deliver this message that’s in the words … most people when they hear something that they love, they’re not thinking into all the corners of the song. They’re just feeling good and listening to it.”

Photo: Vinnie Zuffante/Getty Images