Personnel: Stevie Nicks (vocals); Tom Petty (vocals, guitar); Sandy Stewart (vocals, piano, keyboards, synthesizer, background vocals); Sharon Celani, Carol Brooks, Lori Perry (vocals); David Monday, David Williams , Dean Parks, Don Felder, Richard Wachtel, David Williams , Mike Campbell , Steve Lukather, Waddy Wachtel (guitar); Gene Bianco (harp, harmonica); Marvin Morgenstern, Herbert Sorkin, Harry Glickman, Lewis Eley, Paul Winter , Peter Dimitriades, Ruth Waterman, John Pintavalle, John Beal, Matthew Raimondi, Harry Cykman, Max Ellen, Paul Gershman (violin); Theodore Israel, Julien Barber, Harry Zaratzian, Jesse Levine (viola); Jonathan Abramowitz, Seymour Barab, Jesse Levy, Frederick Zlotkin (cello); Phil Kenzie (saxophone); Roy Bittan (piano, synthesizer); David Foster (piano); Benmont Tench (organ, keyboards); David Bluefield (synthesizer, programming); Brad Smith (drums, percussion); Chet McCracken, Marvin Caruso, Mick Fleetwood, Russ Kunkel, Stan Lynch (drums); Ian Wallace, Bobbye Hall (percussion).
Audio Mixers: Greg Edwards; Lori Perry; Shelly Yakus.
Liner Note Author: John Tobler.
Recording information: A&R Studios, New York, NY; Goodnight Dallas; Hit Factory, New York, NY; Record Plant, Los Angeles, CA; Studio 55, Los Angeles, CA.
Stevie Nicks was following both her debut solo album, Bella Donna (1981), which had topped the charts, sold over a million copies (now over four million), and spawned four Top 40 hits, and Fleetwood Mac's Mirage (1982), which had topped the charts, sold over a million copies (now over two million), and spawned three Top 40 hits (including her "Gypsy"), when she released her second solo album, The Wild Heart. She was the most successful American female pop singer of the time. Not surprisingly, she played it safe: The Wild Heart contained nothing that would disturb fans of her previous work and much that echoed it. As on Bella Donna, producer Jimmy Iovine took a simpler, more conventional pop/rock approach to the arrangements than Fleetwood Mac's inventive Lindsey Buckingham did on Nicks's songs, which meant the music was more straightforward than her typically elliptical lyrics. Iovine did get a Mac-like sound on "Nightbird," in which Nicks repeated her invocation to "the white winged dove" from Bella Donna's "Edge of Seventeen," and on "Sable on Blond," a "Gypsy" soundalike. His most daring effort was the album's leadoff single, "Stand Back," which boasted a disco tempo. Elsewhere, the songs were largely interchangeable with those on Bella Donna, even down to the obligatory duet with Tom Petty. Nicks seemed to know what she was up to -- one song was called "Nothing Ever Changes." As a result, The Wild Heart sold to the faithful -- it made the Top Ten, sold over a million copies, and spawned three Top 40 hits ("Stand Back," "Nightbird," and "If Anyone Falls"). And that was appropriate: if you loved Bella Donna, you would like The Wild Heart very much. ~ William Ruhlmann
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