Continuing my look at the albums of 1977…

Prior to the Decades series, my knowledge of Heart was limited to the synth-pop of the band’s self-titled 1985 album, which featured the hits ‘These Dreams,’ ‘What About Love,’ and ‘Never.’

I was surprised by the band’s debut, 1976’s Dreamboat Annie, when I covered it as part of that year’s Decades roundup. I expected hard rock and got a much quieter, folksier album peppered with some heavy-hitters.

That’s the case for the band’s third album, Little Queen, as well. It kicks off with the blistering ‘Barracuda’ but then settles into a more easygoing, quirky zone. A mystical detour worthy of a Renaissance Fair bumps up against a garage-rock stomper, then gives way to effective acoustic balladry.

This was actually one of two ’77 releases for the band, after their former label (Mushroom) released an album called Magazine against their will. Heart had ended the contract with Mushroom after the label ran an ad that implied sisters Ann and Nancy Wilson were lovers. But Mushroom contended they were owed an album release and culled together some studio songs with live performances to form Magazine.

A court forced the label to pull the album from the shelves after a short while (during which Little Queen was released) but Heart was found to still owe them an album. They reworked the tracks, added a couple of new songs, and released their version of Magazine in 1978.

All of that drama didn’t prevent Little Queen from finding an audience. It ended up going triple Platinum and produced a #11 hit in ‘Baracuda,’ which Ann Wilson wrote about the unseemly implications that she and Nancy were committing incest.