Heart

Magic Man

The single that broke Heart. Ann and Nancy Wilson wrote it about a young woman drawn to an older man, against her mother’s wishes – Ann later said it drew on her own early days with the band’s manager, Michael Fisher. Released in Canada in June 1975, before Dreamboat Annie itself, it was picked up first by a Montreal radio station; in the US it reached No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100 in November 1976, Heart’s first top-ten hit. Howard Leese’s synthesizer gives the long fade its glow. In 2022 it played under Gucci’s Valigeria film with Ryan Gosling.

Heart: Ann Wilson (lead vocals), Nancy Wilson (electric and acoustic guitar, backing vocals), Roger Fisher (electric and acoustic guitar), Howard Leese (electric guitar, synthesizer), Steve Fossen (bass), Dave Wilson (drums); Ray Ayotte (congas), Mike Flicker (percussion). Written by Ann Wilson and Nancy Wilson. Produced by Mike Flicker at Can-Base, Vancouver; engineered by Mike Flicker and Rolf Hennemann. Mushroom Records, 1975; ℗ 1976 Capitol Records. Sources: Wikipedia, Magic Man, Wikipedia, Dreamboat Annie, The Contentmakers, Gucci Valigeria: Ryan Gosling and the trunk. Photograph: a full harvest moon rising over Vancouver, Washington, September 24, 2018, by Jeff Hollett (public domain). Wikimedia Commons.