Heart

The seeds of Heart took root in Seattle, where guitarist Nancy Wilson fronted a Led Zeppelin cover band. Eventually, they changed their name to Heart, but they never lost that reverence for sublime hard rock. And when Nancy's sister, Ann, applied her roaring vocal talent to sexy hard rock like "Crazy On You" and "Barracuda," Heart's passage to superstardom was assured.

You have to trace your finger pretty far down a list of Heart tunes before you run out of hits. For a healthy segment of their career, the Wilson sisters absolutely conquered the airwaves, triumphing with hits like "Unchained Melody" and "Wild Child," to name just a couple of choice moments in a hits-crazy career that spanned more than two decades.

While Heart managed to create hit tunes with alarming regularity, they were really an album-oriented band, especially early on, with epic, critically-acclaimed and creatively rendered albums like Dreamboat Annie, Little Queen, and Dog & Butterfly, all of which are no-brainer inclusions for any fundamentally sound rock collection.

Since crashing rock's boy's club in the mid-'70s, the Wilson sisters have played a vital role in popular music. Not only did they provide fodder for the fantasies of young boys with their bewitching looks, killer talent, and provocative Renaissance costumes; they also served as role models for aspiring girl rockers. And they took advantage, for more than two decades ruling the charts with both pile-driving numbers and tender ballads. Today, Heart's longevity and enduring commercial appeal make them an enduring story of talent's triumph over stereotype.