Magazine

Heart claimed to be upset about a Mushroom-label ad about them that was rather sexist. Methinks all Heart really wanted was the mega-bucks for jumping ship and signing with a major label like CBS. So, Heart abandoned recording "Magazine" and signed with Portrait/CBS. Now Mushroom, with only Ian Matthews & Chilliwack on the horizon, pretty much had to release "Magazine" in order to remain solvent. Which they did, with a disclaimer along the back cover claiming something like, "We regret that the members of Heart did not choose to participate in the completion of this album". I have this rare, early version of the album, and it sounds good to me. The live version of "I've Got the Music In Me" is quite impressive. Now, here come the lawyers and everybody is suing everybody. The upshot: Heart got to breach their contract with Mushroom so long as they went back and completed work on "Magazine" as their final Mushroom album. Which they did, but probably with the typical effort seen on most "contractual obligation" albums [see Mamas & Papas "People Like Us"]. The album, slightly altered from the original, finally gets released almost a year after their first Portrait-label LP. It does okay, a Platinum seller, peaking at #17, the exact same peak as their next album for Portrait, "Dog & Butterfly". And, how ironic for Mushroom that the only hit from "Magazine" was titled "Heartless". Their situation exactly! The two Mushroom albums later landed in Capitol's lap where Capitol could tie them together with all the boring #1 Power Ballads that Heart eventually recorded for them.