Heart

At a time when hard rockers and tender singer-songwriters seemed at odds (if only in a commercial sense), Heart found a healthy tension between those sounds, starting with 1976's debut Dreamboat Annie. The vulnerability in Ann Wilson's voice made her Robert Plant-style wails on "Crazy On You" that much more thrilling, much as her nimble, melodic verses on "Barracuda" (from 1977's Little Queen) make its chugging guitar riff that much more badass. While the popularity of Heart's early work remains rock-steady, the ups and downs of the music biz also took Ann and sister Nancy through a more hair-metal-leaning '80s phase and a '90s side project called the Lovemongers. The 2004 release Jupiter's Darling ended the band's first decade without a studio album, and Heart follows it up this year with the more acoustic-oriented Red Velvet Car.

Updated 08/19/2010