Well, I did say that this was a fruitful theme for this series, didn’t I! I said that I would probably be back for a third time, and here I am. This time I’m filling in some of the gaps for those of you who were expecting you could guess what my choices would be, but to balance those out I’m including a couple of potential surprises plus one I suspect none of you will even have heard of – either the band or the song. So, for the final time (for now) I give you: hearts.

For my usual rousing start, here is the one which I think most of you could have predicted:

Blondie included Heart Of Glass on Parallel Lines, their third album, in September 1978. Although they were an American band they were always much more successful here than in their homeland, and this album continued the trend set by their first two records, peaking at #6 in the US – still their best placing in the US albums chart – but giving them their first #1 UK album. This track was the third single taken from the album, in January 1979, and was #1 in both the US and the UK, and in several other countries too. It has sold over 4m copies, including 1m in the US and, in a rarity given our smaller market, more than 1.3m here in the UK. The album enjoyed the same result: 1.7m UK sales to 1.5m in the US.

Continuing the selections you might have expected, here’s another:

Hungry Heart was the first track on side two of Bruce Springsteen’s double album, The River, released in October 1980. The album was a huge success, reaching #1 in the US and Canada, #2 in the UK and many other top tens around the world. It was his first US #1, and he has now collected nine of those – he has eleven chart topping albums here in the UK though. This was the first single released from the album, also in October 1980, and it reached #5 in the US and Canada, but only #44 in the UK. An odd fact for you to digest: despite all of those massive album sales the Boss has never had a #1 single in either the US or the UK. That surprised me, when I looked it up.

Another from my usual suspects is up next. The sound on this is a little on the quiet side, but it is a charming live performance, during which we are treated to a voyage around the contents of Mr Young’s pockets:

Heart Of Gold was released in January 1972 as the lead single from Neil Young’s fourth album, Harvest, which followed a month later. The single topped the charts in the US and his native Canada, and reached #10 in the UK. The album, however, was a massive seller, getting to #1 in the US, the UK, Canada, Australia, France, the Netherlands and Norway, It was the best-selling album of 1972 in the US, and has in total sold around 10m copies. I bought it when it first came out, and played it to death!

I’ve only ever featured Phil Collins as a solo act once before – yes, THAT one! – so I thought it about time I did so again. He has recently announced his retirement, and it is sad to see how his health has deteriorated. I prefer to remember him like this:

Two Hearts was written by Phil Collins with Lamont Dozier for the soundtrack to the movie Buster, in which Phil starred. The video was made especially to promote this track with the movie, and features one of the most annoying DJs the UK has ever produced – Tony Blackburn – alongside Phil playing the parts of all of the members of a fictitious band called the Four Pound Notes. The single was released in November 1988 and made it to #1 in the US and Canada, and to #6 in the UK. The soundtrack album, released the previous month, was a compilation of songs – mostly by other artists – which reached #6 in the UK and #54 in the US. This song has never been included on one of Phil’s studio albums, though it has been on several compilations and his live record Serious Hits…Live! I can recommend the movie, too.

I’m going back to one of my usual suspects for my next selection. I think I may have played this one before, but who’s counting? It’s lovely, so it was always going to be played as part of this mini-series:

Jackson Browne released In The Shape Of A Heart on his February 1986 album Lives In The Balance, which got to #23 in the US and #36 in the UK. Like everything he has done this is a superb album, but at the time it was released my music listening was rather curtailed. Our first daughter was born the following month, so playing loud music at home was a real no-no! I can still remember listening to this on the car stereo during a solo trip out to get something from our preferred shop for baby stuff, which was around eight miles from home – just time for a track or two! This was released as a single in May of that year, and reached #70 in the US and #66 in the UK. Jackson has been documented as saying that the song specifically addresses his relationship with his first wife, Phyllis Major, who died in March 1976 of a drug overdose. These lyrics are, in context, very poignant:

It was a time I won’t forget
For the sorrow and regret —
And the shape of a heart.

I promised you that one of today’s tunes would be so obscure that you wouldn’t know it: that time has come! As this is an album track and not from a mainstream band it is an audio-only clip, but never mind – it is an absolute belter:

Am I right? You’ve never heard of the Albion Band? This is what Wikipedia says about them: “The Albion Band, also known as The Albion Country Band, The Albion Dance Band, and The Albion Christmas Band, were a  British folk rock band, originally brought together and led by musician Ashley Hutchings. Generally considered one of the most important groupings in the genre, it has contained or been associated with a large proportion of major English folk performers in its long and fluid history.” So now you know! You may recall me speaking of Ashley before, as he has been a founder member of both of this country’s two main folk rock bands Steeleye Span and Fairport Convention. Allowing for the occasional hiatus, the Albions were around in various incarnations from 1973 to 2014. This is the title track from an album they released in 1995, and was written by the two female members, Julie Matthews and Chris While (L-R as you look at the video). I think it is lovely, a real tear-jerker. Given that it is very much a story of a young man leaving England for foreign shores (and then returning to marry his sweetheart), I am always amused by the fact that there is a cover version by The Clydesiders, a Scottish folk band. You’d have thought they wouldn’t want to go near anything by a bunch of Sassenachs, wouldn’t you? I guess it shows that I’m not the only one who thinks this is very good – a pity I can’t say the same for their cover version!

One more stop by a usual suspect for this week. I played a Tom Petty heart song earlier in the series, but I couldn’t really leave this out, could I:

Stop Dragging My Heart Around was written by Tom Petty and Mike Campbell and was intended to be a Heartbreakers recording, but Stevie Nicks was also in the studio and they recorded it together – the video is taken from that session. It wasn’t released as a Heartbreakers song, but instead became the first single to be taken from Stevie’s debut solo album Bella Donna – both the single and album came out in July 1981. The single peaked at #3 in the US and #5 in Canada, but to my surprise only reached #50 here in the UK. The album got to #1 in the US and Australia, #2 in Canada and #11 in the UK. It is a fine album, and I’ve always liked this song, too. Whilst it was never on a Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers studio album it has appeared on several of their ‘best of’ compilations, all of which are highly recommended by me.

For today’s final song I’m going for a real outlier. I’ve never featured her before – never even considered it, to be honest – but this one really has to be included:

A first time for Dionne Warwick, and a rare appearance for anything to do with the Bee Gees, who wrote the song. You can tell, can’t you – it has their style about it. Heartbreaker was a comeback hit for her, and boy, was it a biggie! After a string of hits in the Sixties Dionne hadn’t really featured that often in the UK charts through the Seventies, and then this one came out in September 1982. She had previously had just two top ten hits in the UK, but this one took her up to #2, still her best ever chart placing here. It also reached #10 in the US and was a massive hit worldwide. Buoyed by the single, the album for which it was the title track also became her biggest UK hit by a distance, peaking at #3. Given that she had enjoyed continuing success in the US since her Sixties heyday it was a surprise to me to see that this album only made #25 over there. Nevertheless, this is a stonkingly good record, and feels like a suitable way to close this week’s tunes.

That’s all for now for my run of heart tunes. I may come back to this at some point, but I think I owe it to you to come up with a different theme for next week. I’ve no idea yet what it might be, though! I wish you a good week, and hope that all in your part of the world is going well. Take care 😊