Dreamboat Annie

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Dreamboat Annie
Studio album by Heart
Released February 14, 1976
Recorded July - August 1975 at Can-Base Studios, Vancouver, BC, Canada
Genre Hard rock, folk rock
Length 40:02
Label Mushroom
Producer Mike Flicker
Heart chronology
Dreamboat Annie
Little Queen
Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
Allmusic 4.5/5 stars[1]
Robert Christgau C+[2]
Rolling Stone (favorable)[3]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide 3/5 stars[4]

Dreamboat Annie is the debut album by American rock band Heart. At the time, the band was based in Vancouver B.C., and the album was recorded in B.C. and first released in Canada by Mushroom Records (Canada) in the fall of 1975.[5] It was released in the United States on February 14, 1976 through the L.A. subsidiary of Mushroom Records (Canada). It contained three hit singles which became staples on FM radio. Producer Mike Flicker helped the group to polish their sound and obtain a recording contract with the label.


Heart's first single How Deep it Goes b/w Here Song (M-7008) received little attention when released in Canada by the small Mushroom label in 1975. The second single Magic Man b/w How Deep it Goes was first picked up for radio play by CJFM – FM 96 in Montreal[6] while the band was on tour playing small club dates.

The Album[edit]

Dreamboat Annie was released following the success of the second single. The album cover was designed by current Emily Carr University of Art and Design communication design instructor Deborah Shackleton[7] Heart's first radio success earned them a spot opening a Montreal concert for Rod Stewart in October 1975.[8] More Canadian airplay soon followed, partly because Heart's recordings qualified for Canadian content broadcast requirements. The album sold an impressive 30,000 copies across Canada in its first few months.

Mushroom then formed a US division and released Dreamboat Annie on Valentine's Day 1976 in the Seattle area, where Heart's members had lived and played before relocating to Canada in the early 1970s.[9] The album was played by Seattle stations KISW and KZOK and promptly sold another 25,000 copies in the local area. The group and their label then began working together to build success for the album city by city.[citation needed] According to Flicker, this was part of a plan to convince record distributors that Mushroom had a hit record, so that the album would get national distribution.[citation needed]

Subsequent events[edit]

The success of the album indirectly led to a break between the band and label. The first cracks appeared when the group tried to renegotiate their royalty rate to be more in keeping with what they thought a platinum band should be earning. For this Michael Fisher, who was Ann's boyfriend at the time, stepped aside as de facto manager and Ken Kinnear was hired. Mushroom's tough stance in negotiations, and their opinion that perhaps the band was a one-hit wonder, led to Mike Flicker leaving Mushroom. (He did, however, continue to produce for Heart.)[10]

The relationship broke down completely when the label bought a full-page ad in Rolling Stone mocked up like a National Enquirer front page. The ad used a photo similar to the one on the Dreamboat Annie album cover, showing Ann and Nancy back to back with bare shoulders. The caption under the photo read "It Was Only Our First Time". The band had not been consulted and was furious with the double meaning of the caption.

Since the label could no longer provide Flicker as producer as the contract specified, the band took the position that they were free to move to another label and signed with Portrait. Mushroom insisted that the band was still bound to the contract which called for two albums. So, Mushroom released Magazine with incomplete tracks, studio outtakes and live material and a disclaimer on the cover.[10]

The band got a federal injunction to recall the album, but not before about 50,000 copies had been sold. The court eventually decided that the band could sign with Portrait, but that they did owe Mushroom a second album. The band returned to the studio to re-record, remix, edit, and re-sequence the recordings. Magazine was re-released in 1978 and sold a million copies in less than a month.[10] See Magazine for information about the differences between the two versions.

Shelley Siegal, the promoter behind the "First Time" ad, died a few months after the re-release, and Mushroom Records went bankrupt a few years later. The episode had at least one more repercussion. Not long after the ad appeared, a radio promoter asked Ann about her lover – he was referring to Nancy, thus implying that the sisters were incestuous lesbian lovers. The encounter infuriated Ann who went back to her hotel and penned the words to what became Heart's signature song, "Barracuda".[10]


The album was recorded on an Ampex MM1000 16-track tape recorder (which formerly belonged to United Western Recorders) at the Can-Base Studios in Vancouver, BC, which were later renamed to the current Mushroom Studios. It was the first major hit album recorded there.

Track listing[edit]

All songs written by Ann & Nancy Wilson except where noted.

Side one[edit]

  1. "Magic Man" - 5:28
  2. "Dreamboat Annie (Fantasy Child)" - 1:10
  3. "Crazy on You" - 4:53
  4. "Soul of the Sea" - 6:33
  5. "Dreamboat Annie" - 2:02

Side two[edit]

  1. "White Lightning and Wine" - 3:53
  2. "(Love Me Like Music) I'll Be Your Song" - 3:20
  3. "Sing Child" (A. Wilson, N. Wilson, Steve Fossen, Roger Fisher) - 4:55
  4. "How Deep it Goes" (A. Wilson) - 3:49
  5. "Dreamboat Annie (Reprise)" - 3:50



# Title Release Date Hot 100
1. "Crazy on You" 1976 35
2. "Magic Man" 1976 9
3. "Dreamboat Annie" 1976 42


Ann Wilson was song writer and lead vocalist on all tracks - i.e. tracks 1-10. She played flute on tracks 3, 8 and 10.

artist song
Guitars Percussion Keyboards Wind orch.
electric acoustic steel bass banjo drums bells conga timp. perc. synth. piano flute
Ann Wilson 1-10 1-10 3,7-9 9 3,8,10
Nancy Wilson 1-8,10 2,3,5-10 1,6 1-10
Roger Fisher[11] 8 1,3,4,6,7,8 1 7
Steve Fossen 8 1-8,10
Howard Leese 8 1,3 2,7 1 4,7,9,10
Michael DeRosier 6,8
Additional musicians
Ray Ayotte 1 4
Before Dawn
Tessie Bensussen
Geoff Foubert
Jim Hill


Rob Deans 3,9 9,10 4,7,9,10
Mike Flicker 10 1
Kat Hendrikse 2-5,7,10
Duris Maxwell 9
Brian Newcombe 9
Dave Wilson 1
Tracks 1-10 1-10 2,3,5-10 1,3,4,6-9 1-10 7 1-10 2,5 1-10 2,7 1 10 1,4 1,3,9 9,10 3,8,10 4,7,9,10
artist song
Guitars Percussion Keyboards Wind orch.


  • Mike Fisher - special direction
  • Howard Leese - production assistance
  • Mike Flicker - engineering
  • Rolf Hennemann - engineering
  • Patrick Collins - mastering

Chart performance[edit]


Chart (1976) Peak
Australian Albums Chart[citation needed] 9
Canadian Albums Chart[12] 20
Dutch Albums Chart[13] 7
UK Albums Chart[14] 36
U.S. Billboard 200[15] 7

Album certifications[edit]

  • US certification: Platinum (1,000,000 as of Nov. 1976) - RIAA


  1. ^ Dreamboat Annie at AllMusic
  2. ^ Christgau, Robert. "CG: Heart". RobertChristgau.com. Retrieved 2011-08-04. 
  3. ^ Holden, Stephen (1976-10-21). "Heart: Dreamboat Annie : Music Reviews". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on 2008-06-05. Retrieved 2013-04-21. 
  5. ^ Read, Jeani (1976-10-02). "Canada! Coast Industry Focuses on Its Uniqueness". Billboard 88 (40): C-20. Retrieved 17 January 2014. 
  6. ^ Shelley Siegel. "A Canadian Success Story Not To Be Forgotten". Retrieved April 4, 2011. 
  7. ^ "Deborah Shackleton". Ecuad.ca. Retrieved 2013-06-30. 
  8. ^ VH1 Behind the Music
  9. ^ See the Heart (band) page for the origins of the group.
  10. ^ a b c d Ann Wilson, Nancy Wilson; Charles R. Cross (2012). "Ch. 12 - Burn to the Wick". Kicking & Dreaming. HarperCollins. ISBN 9780062101679. 
  12. ^ "RPM - Library and Archives Canada". Collectionscanada.gc.ca. Retrieved 2011-08-04. 
  13. ^ Steffen Hung. "Heart - Dreamboat Annie". dutchcharts.nl. Retrieved 2011-08-04. 
  14. ^ "Heart - Dreamboat Annie". Chart Stats. Archived from the original on 2012-07-28. Retrieved 2011-08-04. 
  15. ^ "Heart". AllMusic. Retrieved 2011-08-04.