Little Queen

Little Queen is the third studio album released by the American rock band Heart. It was released in May 1977 on Portrait Records, and re-released in 2004 with two bonus tracks.

Overview
The group intended Magazine to be the official follow-up album to the debut Dreamboat Annie. However a contract dispute with their label Mushroom Records, resulted in the group signing with the newly formed Portrait Records, a division of CBS Records (now Sony/BMG).

The contract called for two albums and Mushroom took the position that they were owed a second one. On that basis, Mushroom attempted to prevent the release of Little Queen and any other work by Heart, and took the four unfinished tracks for Magazine, added some studio outtakes and live material, and released the album with a disclaimer on the cover.

The dispute dragged on for about two years and ended with the court deciding that the band was free to sign with another label, but that Mushroom was indeed owed a second album. So, Heart went back to the studio to re-record, remix, edit, and re-sequence the recordings in a marathon session over the period of a few days. A court ordered guard stood nearby to prevent the master tapes from being erased.

Little Queen was released 14 May 1977 and Magazine was re-released 22 April 1978. With the hit single "Barracuda" on it, Little Queen outsold Magazine handily, eventually achieving 3x Platinum status. However, the almost contemporary release also gave the band the distinction of having all three of their albums on the charts at the same time.

"Barracuda"
After their first album became a million seller, the label took out a full-page ad in Rolling Stone magazine touting the band's success, using the headline "Million to One Shot Sells a Million". The ad was mocked up to look like the front page of the National Enquirer. The ad included one of the photos from the Dreamboat Annie cover shoot, but with Nancy and Ann looking into the camera. The caption under the photo read: "Heart's Wilson Sisters Confess: 'It Was Only Our First Time!'".

Just after the "First Time" ad appeared, a Detroit radio promoter asked Ann Wilson where her lover was, referring to sister, Nancy. Ann was outraged and retreated to her hotel room and began writing a song. When she relayed the incident to Nancy, she too was outraged. Nancy joined Ann and contributed a melody and bridge. The song became "Barracuda", which peaked on the charts at No. 11 and remains the band's signature song.

Heart

 * Ann Wilson – lead vocals, flute
 * Nancy Wilson – acoustic and electric guitars, autoharp, mandolin, piano, lead vocals on "Treat Me Well", backing vocals
 * Roger Fisher – lead guitar, mandolin
 * Howard Leese – acoustic and electric guitars, synthesizer, piano, Moog bass, mellotron, mandolin, backing vocals, orchestral arrangement and conductor on "Treat Me Well"
 * Steve Fossen – bass guitar
 * Michael DeRosier – drums, chimes, tabla, percussion, timpani

Additional musicians

 * Lynn Wilson Keagle, Seal (Celia) Dunnington – vocals on "Cry to Me" and "Go On Cry"

Production

 * Mike Flicker – engineer, producer, percussion
 * Buzz Richmond, Winslow Kutz – engineers
 * Mike Doud, Marilyn Romen – art direction
 * John Kehe – design
 * Bob Seidemann – photography
 * Michael Fisher – special direction