Heart

Released: October 7, 1978

Songwriter: Michael Fisher Sue Ennis Nancy Wilson (Heart) Ann Wilson

Producer: Michael Fisher Mike Flicker Heart

No wind when I took the watch
My ship was still and waiting
I lay on that mirrored sky
A restless sailor waiting
I closed my eyes said the
Words of will for the gentle
Breathing that moves the seas
Make my sails fill

Whisper waves cloud the glass
Awake at last like a lover
It rushed around me talking sweet
Roll over, roll over, roll over
And in my ear he blew his name
It sound so strange but I heard it plain
Mistral, mistral wind

I have always held the wheel but
I let the wind steal my power
Spin me 'round lose my course
Nights run by like hours
Well, it would show me the way
To the deepest mountains
Too high and beautiful to be
Mistral, mistral wind

All the hours on the watch
I wait for that breeze to move me
And blow me back to that place
Magic space all through me
And I sigh your name
Across the empty water
You made a crazy dreamer out of me
Mistral, mistral, mistral, mistral
Mistral, mistral

Heart, lead by Ann and Nancy Wilson, is considered a — or the — Grand Dame of hard rock and heavy metal.

Not only do they have more hit singles and AOR tracks than most other bands (songs we’d go over in detail but they’re listed on this very page in order of popularity) but in some ways deeper respect than many, both for their own groundbreaking talent and appeal and some unusual recognition thereof, including having been picked to perform Stairway to Heaven for Led Zeppelin themselves at the Kennedy Center Honors in 2012, making Robert Plant and company actually cry. Not Rush, not Aerosmith, nor any of the other bands beloved rock/metal that — along with Ann and Nancy’s band — followed Zeppelin by one generation. Just Heart.

Starting in the mid seventies, Heart forged a unique and powerful sound outstanding in their field, and was unusual in topping the charts well into their own second decade in the late eighties, becoming a staple of MTV’s rotation, albeit sometimes crammed by the industry into music videos that the bandmates despised and comment on to this day.

more tracks from the album

Dog & Butterfly

From the album

Dog & Butterfly (1978)

Heart popular songs

Mistral WindHeart

Heart

Dog & Butterfly