Stevie Nicks - The Wild Heart (1983)

The Wild Heart is the second studio album by American singer-songwriter and Fleetwood Mac vocalist Stevie Nicks. Recording began in late 1982, shortly after the end of Fleetwood Mac's Mirage Tour. After the death of her best friend, Robin Anderson, and with new appreciation for her life and career, the recording took only a few months and was released on June 10, 1983, a year after Fleetwood Mac's Mirage. It peaked at No. 5 on the U.S. Billboard 200 charts and achieved platinum status on September 12, 1983. The album is notable for its array of prominent guest musicians. Tom Petty made a return to write "I Will Run to You", on which his bandmates from the Heartbreakers performed. Nicks' Fleetwood Mac bandmate, drummer Mick Fleetwood, made an appearance on the track "Sable on Blonde". Toto's Steve Lukather contributed some of the guitar work on what would become the album's biggest hit single, "Stand Back", which also features an uncredited contribution from Prince, who played the synthesizer track. Nicks also worked with friend Sandy Stewart, who wrote the music for three tracks on the album and performed on several (Stewart would go on to write the 1987 Fleetwood Mac hit "Seven Wonders"). The album's final track, "Beauty And The Beast", features a full string section performing a score arranged and conducted by Paul Buckmaster. Nicks had recorded various other tracks prior to the album's release, including "Violet And Blue" which was featured on the movie soundtrack for Against All Odds, and later on Nicks' 3-disc retrospective box set Enchanted in 1998. The Wild Heart achieved double-platinum status in 1993, ten years after its release, for selling more than 2 million copies in the U.S. It spent a whole year on the Billboard 200 from June 1983 to June 1984. It was also certified Silver in the UK for sales in excess of 60,000. Three singles were released from the album: "Stand Back", which charted at No. 5; "If Anyone Falls", which charted at No. 14; and "Nightbird", which charted at No. 33. "Stand Back" and "If Anyone Falls" featured accompanying videos that went into heavy rotation on MTV. "Nightbird", a track that Nicks has said was her favorite on the album, was performed live on Solid Gold and Saturday Night Live.

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, All Music

Track List:

01. Wild Heart [0:06:11.33]
02. If Anyone Falls in Love [0:04:09.20]
03. Gate And Garden [0:04:06.62]
04. Enchanted [0:03:06.58]
05. Nightbird [0:05:00.47]
06. Stand Back [0:04:51.25]
07. I will run to You [0:03:22.10]
08. Nothing ever changes [0:04:09.43]
09. Sable on Blond [0:04:15.37]
10. Beauty And The Beast [0:06:02.43]

Personnel:
Stevie Nicks – vocals
Lori Perry, Sharon Celani – backup vocals

Guest Musicians:
Sandy Stewart – keyboards, synthesizer, backup vocals, piano (tracks 1, 3, 5-6, 8-9)
Tom Petty – guitar, vocals (track 7)
Mike Campbell – guitar (track 7)
Benmont Tench – organ, keyboards (tracks 3-5, 7)
Howie Epstein – bass (track 7)
Stan Lynch – drums (track 7)
Mick Fleetwood – drums (track 9)
Steve Lukather – guitar (track 6)
Don Felder – guitar (track 8)
Prince – synthesizer on "Stand Back" (uncredited)

Session Musicians:
David Monday – guitar (tracks 1, 3)
Dean Parks – guitar (track 1)
Waddy Wachtel – guitar (tracks 2-6, 9)
David Williams – guitar (track 6)
Roger Tausz – bass (track 1)
Bob Glaub – bass (tracks 2, 4, 8)
Kenny Edwards – bass (tracks 5, 9)
John Beal - bass (track 10)
Roy Bittan – synthesizer, piano (tracks 2, 4, 8-9)
David Foster – piano (track 5)
Brad Smith – drums, percussion (tracks 1, 3)
Russ Kunkel – drums, drum overdubs (tracks 2, 4, 6, 8)
Bobbye Hall – percussion (tracks 2, 4, 6, 8)
Chet McCracken – drum overdubs (track 5)
Marvin Caruso – drums (tracks 5-6)
Ian Wallace – percussion (track 6)
David Bluefield - OBX-A programming, DMX drum machine (track 6)
Phil Kenzie – saxophone (track 8)
Carolyn Brooks - background vocals (tracks 2, 10)

String section on "Beauty And The Beast"
Kenneth Whitfield, Paul Buckmaster - string arrangement
Gene Bianco – harp
Harry Zaratzian, Jesse Levine,Julien Barber, Theodore Israel – viola
Frederick Zlotkin, Jesse Levy, Jon Abramowitz, Seymour Barab – cello
John Pintavalle, Harry Cykman, Harry Glickman, Herbert Sorkin, Lewis Eley, Marvin Morgenstern, Matthew Raimondi, Max Ellen, Paul Gershman, Paul Winter, Peter Dimitriades, Raymond Kunicki, Regis Eandiorio, Ruth Waterman – violin