| Heartless | |
| Cover: | Heart Heartless.jpg |
| Type: | single |
| Artist: | Heart |
| Album: | Magazine[1] |
| B-Side: | Just the Wine |
| Released: | March 1978 (US) [2] |
| Recorded: | 1976 |
| Genre: | Hard rock |
| Length: | 3:54 (Promo Version) 5:00 (Album/Single Version) |
| Label: | Mushroom Records |
| Producer: | Mike Flicker |
| Prev Title: | Kick It Out |
| Prev Year: | 1977 |
| Next Title: | Straight On |
| Next Year: | 1978 |
"Heartless" is a song written and recorded by the rock band Heart in 1976 for their album Magazine. Issues with the band's previous record label Mushroom caused a delay in the album's release and "Heartless" was released as a single two years later, after the re-issue of their first single "Crazy on You".[3]
The song is an aggressive hard rock number that opens with a slower synthesizer based interlude before opening up into a full hard rock tune. The lyrics involve a scorned lover who apparently can't get away from the grasp of her heartless partner. "The doctor said come back again next week / I think that you need me / All she did was cry / She wanted to die doctor when can you see me / There's a guy out there / Seems like he's everywhere / It just ain't fair."[4]
"Heartless" and "Without You" were the only singles released from Magazine, with "Heartless" peaking at number twenty-four on the US Billboard Hot 100. Cash Box particularly praised the vocals and bass guitar playing.[5] Record World called it "straight-ahead, rather funky rock, with Ann Wilson's vocal the centerpiece."[6] Only five months passed before Heart released their next album, Dog and Butterfly.
Credits adapted from the liner notes of the 1978 revised version of Magazine.[7]
| Chart (1978) | Peak position | |
|---|---|---|
| Canadian RPM Top Singles[8] | 18 | |
| US Billboard Hot 100[9] | 24 | |
| US Cash Box Top 100[10] | 18 |
| Chart (1978) | Rank | |
|---|---|---|
| Canada[11] | 146 | |
| US (Joel Whitburn's Pop Annual)[12] | 157 |
