BURNING THE GROUND EXCLUSIVE 1988

“NEVER”

“Never” is the name of a song recorded by rock band Heart. It was released as the second single from the band’s self-titled 1985 album Heart. The song is an aggressive rock number with an uplifting lyric to a person who has been discouraged by love. Like their previous single “What About Love”, the music video for “Never” was placed in heavy rotation on MTV.

“Never” became Heart’s biggest U.S. hit at the time, peaking at number four on the Billboard Hot 100. It marked the first time that Heart earned two consecutive top-ten hits, and also the first time a Heart album generated two top-ten singles.

The songs harmonic chorus highlights not only Ann Wilson’s powerhouse vocal talent but also the vocal stamina of sister Nancy, who maintains a soprano harmony throughout the course of the song.

“Never” & “Nothin’ At All” both have alternate mixes (as featured on their music videos as well as the 7″ single), and these mixes had also been pressed onto some early release runs of the “Heart” album, beit on LP, CD or cassette. One may get a copy with both songs in their original mixes; both in their alternate mixes, or only one song in a different mix. Copies with serial No. SL-12410, for example, features the alternate mix for “Never”, but the original mix for “Nothin’ At All”. Whereas the two different versions of “Nothin’ At All” greatly differ from one another, the two mixes of “Never” are quite similar. Recently, the original album mix was featured on the “Essentials” Collection.

CHARTS:

“THESE DREAMS”

In 1985, Martin Page (who co-wrote several other pop hits, including “We Built This City” and “King of Wishful Thinking”) and Bernie Taupin (longtime collaborator of Elton John) wrote the music and lyrics to the song now known as “These Dreams.” At the time, Page and Taupin were under contract to Columbia Records and the record company offered the song to Stevie Nicks, who expressed no interest in recording it. Heart had just recently signed with Capitol Records. While the band had previously recorded their own material, they were impressed by “These Dreams” and agreed to use it on their upcoming album.

The song marked the first Heart single on which lead vocals were performed by Nancy Wilson instead of Ann Wilson. According to The Billboard Book of Number One Hits by Fred Bronson, when it came time for Nancy Wilson to record her vocal, she was suffering from a cold and her voice sounded somewhat raspy and gravelly. After the song reached its peak of success, producers reportedly wanted Nancy to recreate the gravelly sound on future recordings, asking her, “Can’t you just get sick again?”

“These Dreams” was released as the third single from Heart’s 1985 album Heart. Following two consecutive US top-ten singles, the song elevated the band’s success even further, becoming Heart’s first single to hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 on March 22, 1986. It also became Heart’s first (and, to date, only) number one song in the US Adult Contemporary chart and peaked at number sixty-two in the UK Singles Chart; however, a re-issue released in 1988 reached number eight.

CHARTS:

SIDE A:
Never (Extended Remix) 5:05
Remix – Ron Nevision
Written-By – Connie (4), Knight*, Bloch*

These Dreams 4:12
Written-By – B. Taupin*, M. Page*

SIDE B:
Never (Remix) 4:05
Remix – Ron Nevision
Written-By – Connie (4), Knight*, Bloch*

These Dreams (7″ Version) 3:46
Written-By – B. Taupin*, M. Page*

VINYL GRADE:
Vinyl: Near Mint
Sleeve: Near Mint

RELEASE INFORMATION:
Label: Capitol Records – 12 CL 482
Format: Vinyl, 12″, 45 RPM
Country: Germany
Released: 1988
Genre: Rock
Style: Pop Rock
Credits: Producer, Engineer – Ron Nevision

NOTES:
Original versions appear on the LP “HEART”

Find The 12″ On DISCOGS

EQUIPMENT USED:
Turntable: Pro-Ject Debut III
Cartridge: Ortofon Super
Stylus: Ortofon OM Stylus 30
Bellari VP130 Tube Phono Preamp
Soundcard: ESI Juli@
VPI HW 16.5 Record Cleaning Machine
Brother MFC-6490CW Professional Series Scanner

SOFTWARE USED:
Adobe Audition 3.0 (Recording)
Adobe Photoshop CS5
ClickRepair
dBpoweramp
Playlist Creator

RESTORATION NOTES:
All vinyl rips are recorded @ 32bit/float
Downsampled to 24bit/96kHz and16bit /44kHz using iZotope RX Advanced 2
FLAC (Level Eight)
MP3 (320kbps)
Artwork scanned at 600dpi