Born in San Francisco on March 16th, Nancy Wilson and her sister Ann decided they were going to get into rock ‘n’ roll when they saw the Beatles perform on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1964.
Ann and Nancy’s first group was called The Viewpoints, and they played places like drive-ins and church dances, never considering these real venues because they had folding chairs as opposed to permanent theatre seats.
The Wilson sisters were a rare breed back in the early 70’s. Not only could they write and sing, but they could rock.
Together Ann and Nancy led Heart through four decades of rock. The group has sold over 35 million records worldwide, had 20 Top 40 singles, seven Top Ten albums and four Grammy nominations.
Heart achieved Top 10 albums on the Billboard charts in the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, and 2010s, with chart singles in each decade. This span of over four decades gives them the longest span of Top 10 albums by a female fronted band.
Looking back, check out Nancy in 1977 talking about her relationship with her guitar.
And now check out how Heart continues to rock just as hard four decades later in this performance on the Jimmy Kimmel Show in January, 2015.
While Ann is usually known as the lead singer for the band, the Nancy-led single, These Dreams from the 1985 self-titled album, ended up becoming Heart’s first single to hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 on March 22nd, 1986. Rumor has it that Nancy’s deep, sensual voice on the single was a result of her just getting over a cold when they needed to record.
Nancy and Ann also received a star for Heart on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in September 2012 and were deservedly admitted into the 2013 class of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Whether working on music for the movies behind the camera, or taking the arena stage by storm, Nancy Wilson is a true musical legend.
