Wild Heart 2.0
 

I was never a fan of the Wild Heart album as a whole. I recently made a playlist with a few things removed/replaced. Some may consider my omissions a class A Stevie felony...

Side A
Wild Heart
If Anyone Falls
Violet & Blue
Enchanted
Nightbird

Side B
Stand Back
Nothing Ever Changes
Battle of the Dragon
Sleeping Angel
All The Beautiful Worlds

I can dig it with 2 changes.
Install the deluxe alternate version of Wild Heart as the title track
Axe Nightbird for the deluxe alternate version of Sable on Blonde with an edited ending

Wow, I can’t imagine TWH without Beauty and the Beast, and I love I Will Run to You. I do not know All the Beautiful Worlds so I have no idea how well it would fit on the album. Battle of the Dragon, for me, would fit better on Rock a Little.

Do you not like the songs you took off TWH, or do you just think they don’t fit with the album? Beauty and the Beast became such a concert staple for awhile, it’s just really hard to imagine it being left off the album.

There's nothing wrong with I Will Run to You, I just like some of the other tracks left off a little bit better. Same for Sable.

Because the production of the album is driven quite a bit by synths, I always felt BATB didn't quite fit with the rest of the album. I was aiming to keep up the momentum throughout the entire album.

Gate & Garden was always a head scratcher to me. It just seems so obviously not at the same level as the other tracks kicking around at the time. Especially for the second track of side A!

I've come to realize that TWH is My favorite album. I don't know why in particular but I enjoy this every time I play it. Yes Gate and Garden is the dud, but when it kicks in at the end I really like it. I think this album was her break up album with Jimmy Iovine and a lot of the songs are about their relationship. Except for the gorgeous B&TB which was about Mick. This album was all about the drama of love

Gate and Garden has an incredible vocal along with Roy's incredible piano playing. It sounds great together but the song does not fit on the album. I think Jimmy was going for more adult contemporary to increase sales which sort of backfired. Bella Donna was huge for its guitar based rock roots.
There are some incredible tracks but I too sometimes feel underwhelmed by the album. Gate and Garden and Nightbird have to go. I would even include Garbo. The album needed a little acoustic guitar. The title track is ok but needs to be more uptempo like the alternate version. The ending of the song on the album is a weird fade out. It seems Jimmy had trouble with this track. The alternate version is so much better but she is a bit rushed. There needed to be a take between the album version and the alternate version. How All The Beautiful Worlds was not included on the album is a real head scratcher.

My ideal Wild Heart album is a little weird, but it would have sold 10 million. In some cases, the songs needed a lot of work, but the possibilities were endless as long as the right people were around.

Side A
Stand Back
Julia
Nothing Ever Changes
Sleeping Angel
All the Beautiful Worlds

Side B
Wild Heart
Candlebright
Smile at You
Sable on Blond
Golden Braid
Destiny


B-sides
If Anyone Falls
Garbo

I used to know this stuff like the back of my hand, but now I don’t remember. Did she record versions of destiny and smile at you during the wild heart sessions? That would be interesting by to hear!

Without Nightbird, Sable on Blonde, and Beauty and the Beast, the album is basically a throwaway.

Destiny, yes - you can find it on YouTube. Smile At You - not as far as I know. She seems to have thought of that as a Mac song, since as far as I know the only outtakes of it are from Tusk and Mirage before it was finally released on SYW.

"My heart, My heart, My heart was...broken!"
"Flaming, Flaming, Flaming...!" Smile at You! (Angry Version):]

I thought Sandy Stewart played the piano on Gate and Garden? Roy did Enchanted and Beauty and the Beast, no?

WHAT?! Have you heard the 24 Karat Gold: Songs from the Vault album? It's the best song on that album, along with Watch Chain.

Yes you are correct.
I take back my incredible piano part :)

That 24k Gold version is horrible.
The original that was recorded in 1982 is the best. Not sure why they included an alternate vocal for the deluxe Wild Heart though.

It does sound like Roy though. I like that Sandy was involved in the studio so much.

She plays that dreaded keyboard into to Nightbird :eek:

I dont care for her piano on Wild Heart either. It seems basic and lacks any vision for the song.

While it's really cool to see Smile At You reimagined entirely on Say You Will, once you hear the angry demo version, there's just no going back. That could have been a Stevie barn burner that gave "Come" a run for its money.

This is a great thread, I think the success of the Wild Heart comes off Bella Donna's coattails and Stand Back, without those, it would not have reached what it did. That said, so much potential and there was absolutely no reason at the time to abandon that great Bella Donna sound that defined her as a solo artist. It needed about three older songs to balance out the new writing which had noticeably changed in style, quality and interest. One track that rarely get s mentioned but are great songs are You Like Me, which the Some Become Strangers Brothers recorded. Also a reworked Baby Doll was also good. Gate and Garden is notable for the beautiful vocal and Bittan piano work, for that, it deserves a spot, but needed better lyrics. Would love to include Sorcerer as recorded on the reissue, not sure where it would fit, but it's an all time favourite of mine. Also, the title track would be better as a tighter song coming in at under 4 minutes, it doesn't have the sprawling Sara quality to make it a long song. With that my Wild Heart is an 11 song album:

Side One:
Stand Back
If Anyone Falls
Violet and Blue
Gate and Garden
Enchanted (with a slower Destiny start)
Sleeping Angel

Wild Heart. (3:47 )
You Like Me
Sable on Blond (reissue version, shorten about 45 sec-1 Minute)
Nothing Ever Changes
All the Beautiful Worlds


Potentially unpopular opinion: Besides her writing credits, no Sandy Stewart keyboard spots.

Wow, another vote for the exclusion of Beauty and the Beast and I Will Run to You. I knew IWRTY wasn’t very popular, but had no idea BATB wasn’t, either. I love both songs, especially BATB. This thread had me looking at the Deluxe Edition and Stevie commented that they filmed the recording of BATB, with the full orchestra and everything- that would be very cool to see now.

I know that was a tough choice bw- the earlier Tusk takes have kind of grown on me and would've been neat to see it appear earlier. Not that I don't like the WH version, All the Beautiful Worlds I think fit the album better. I will Run to You not bad either but with so many of her own songs, covers no longer needed and the Tom Petty collaboration had already been done, to better effect.

My 2.0 would be

Wild Heart (def not the album cut)
If Anyone Falls -just turning up Waddy's guitar a few notches
All The Beautiful Worlds
Enchanted
Garbo

Stand Back
I will run to you
Sleeping Angel
Nothing Ever Changes
Sable on Blonde (deluxe WH edition)

Stand Back?!
Wild Heart?!

I picked stuff that was just lying around from the then-past. I almost added “Jimmy Come Back” but found out that she hadn’t even written the song yet.

She and Jimmy were mostly broken up..... after his disastrous trip to France with her when she joined up with FM at the chateau to record Mirage.. and he and LB fought and Jimmy left.... their relationship was never the same, and then she was gone for months on the road with FM... and her drugs and ego.... she fought with him a LOT on WH and wasn't as willing to listen to his advice like she had on BD. She was very nervous making BD and knew if it wasn't a success it would be a very public failure. Once it was so successful, she got more self-confident to the point of stubborn and cocky. She didn't take advice so well, and she didn't want to listen to him. Stevie is generally, sadly, NOT the best producer of her own material and part of the decline of each of her albums after BD is her having too much clout and ability to override producers who knew better. :shrug: WH was the start of this downward trend.

Agree totally about Sandy Stewart's playing.

All so true. Stevie got married while still working on the Wild Heart which was very odd to say the least. By the time her next album came around Jimmy walked out in the middle. Anyone with sense would have changed their ways for the guy who made her a solo star. Yet he was gone and replaced with enablers. It no longer was about the music or her songs but about the party. I think some saw the writing on the wall and in late desperate moves brought her all these songs that others had written. What happened to the prolific songwriter that needed a solo gig to put out her songs? She had no Jimmy or Lindsey to craft them anymore.