Rock band Heart has pumped out a ton of hits over the years. However, for one half of the band, this particular song “never felt like a Heart song.”
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The song in question is “All I Wanna Do Is Make Love to You” from 1990. This track was written by Mutt Lange and boasted some pretty controversial subject matter. The song follows a woman who decides to pick up a hitchhiker and sleep with him in order to become pregnant. Not surprisingly, the song became a hit worldwide when the album Brigade was released.
Nancy Wilson acknowledged that the song was a major hit. But she also acknowledged that the song didn’t really feel like it fit her band, which also consists of her sister and powerhouse vocalist Ann Wilson.
During a very recent appearance on the Broken Record Podcast, Wilson described how the song never really felt like it belonged to her band.
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“We gave a lot of songs a good try,” Wilson said on the podcast in reference to how she listened to a number of demos at the time. “There were some real turkeys. A lot of really bombastic ballads. […] The formulaic stuff is what we never could get right. That’s just the one [“All I Wanna Do Is Make Love To You”] that just never felt like a Heart song exactly. It’s a great track. It sounds genius on the radio, but it was never for Ann as a lead singer too, who has to sell what she’s talking about in those lyrics of the song.”
Wilson went on to say that the track sounded more like a country song, rather than a “real” rock song.
The Controversy Behind “All I Wanna Do Is Make Love To You”
During the interview, Wilson also noted that while the song didn’t fit Heart well, she was a bit proud of the controversy it stirred.
“It was banned in Ireland, you know, because of the reverse sexism of it,” she said. “We were kind of proud of the fact that it was banned in Ireland.”
Heart is currently kicking off a massive international tour with a concert tonight in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Photo by Kevin Winter
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“…powerhouse vocalist Ann Wilson.”
Nancy was also an important singer in the band. In fact, Heart’s first number one single, These Dreams, had Nancy on lead vocal.