Ann Wilson’s powerful vocals wailing about the rush of falling in love soundtracked the summer of 1987. “Alone,” Heart’s second consecutive No. 1, spent a total of 16 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100, including three back-to-back weeks in the top spot. Nearly four decades later, Classic Pop magazine has crowned it the greatest power ballad of the 1980s.
But the outlet goes further than simply calling the song a great ballad, expressing that the band “perfected” the power ballad with a “tour-de-force” banger.
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View this post on Instagram“While Bonnie Tyler had pioneered the ’80s power ballad, Heart perfected it,” the publication wrote, adding, “It’s a tour-de-force unmatched by any power balladeer since.”
Released in May 1987, the song features Ann Wilson’s powerhouse vocals, with sister Nancy Wilson on guitar and the song’s co-writer Kelly providing high-harmony backing vocals. The song opens with haunting piano and synth sounds, then erupts into a massive, stadium-filling hard-rock anthem. And like many of Heart’s hits, “Alone” has a fascinating backstory.
Originally written and recorded by songwriting duo Tom Kelly and Billy Steinberg, “Alone” started its life with a completely different band. i-Ten, the short-lived hard-rock outfit composed of Kelly and Steinberg, included the track on their 1983 one-and-only studio album, Taking a Cold Look, but the album sank without a peep.
Making another pitstop on the CBS sitcom Dreams, “Alone” was performed by Valerie Stevenson and John Stamos. That version was released as a single, but again didn’t chart or sell particularly well.
After i-Ten’s album flopped, Steinberg said he put the songs “in a drawer and forgot about them,” Louder shared. But by 1987, the songwriting duo had become hot commodities, thanks in part to hits including Madonna’s “Like a Virgin” and Cyndi Lauper’s “True Colors.” When Heart needed a power ballad, Kelly suggested they revisit “Alone.”
“‘Alone’ is a particularly strong song that could have been recorded at any time over the decades,” Nancy Wilson told Guitar World. “I guess we were a little jealous, though, because we didn’t write [it] ourselves. [Laughs]”
Featured on Heart’s ninth studio album, Bad Animals, the song was their lead single and a Billboard chart smash. It debuted on the Hot 100 at No. 53 before climbing to No. 1, where it stayed for three consecutive weeks in July and remained in the Top 40 for most of the summer.
In fact, on this day in 1987, “Alone” was still at No. 29, six weeks after reaching No. 1. Not to mention, the hit helped propel its parent album to No. 2 on the Billboard 200.
According to Classic Pop, the glory days of Heart were considered over before the band’s mid-’80s comeback, but “Alone” proved otherwise. It became one of two consecutive monster hits and turned Heart’s reinvention into a massive success.
“There are still songs we love to perform from that era, like ‘Alone,’” Nancy Wilson said, via Louder. “Although when we do it now, we take the wedding-cake production out of it.”
Related: 1983 Ballad, Which Turned the Actors From ‘One Big Blow’ Into a No. 1 Band, Is Just as Powerful 43 Years Later
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