written by Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly

produced by Ron Nevison

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This incredible song has earned itself quite a history since having

been written in the early ’80s. The songwriting team of Billy

Steinberg and Tom Kelly penned it, not long before they began

achieving monumental success writing smash songs mostly made

famous by female artists: “Like A Virgin” (Madonna), “True Colors,” “I Drove All Night” (both Cyndi L.), “So Emotional” (Whitney H.), “Eternal Flame” (Bangles), “I Touch Myself” (Divinyls) and “I’ll Stand By You” (Pretenders). Whew.

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Billy and Tom actually teamed up as a short-lived band called i-Ten and recorded “Alone” onto their only album in 1983. The song briefly resurfaced the following autumn in an equally obscure situation comedy called Dreams, about a fictitious rock band (in fact starring Square Pegs’ Jami Gertz and a pre-Full House John Stamos!) trying to land themselves a recording contract. A year or three later, the song finally found its way on over to the Heart camp.

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Today’s June 19th, 2021 as I’m making this page, and the 71st birthday of one of Heart’s sisters, Ann Dustin Wilson (the brunette), and so it is also her birthday tribute. I could certainly have just as validly used one of their establishing ’70s hits, but being the gratuitous ’80s hook sucker I am, and being the overwhelming monster hit the song became and has since lasted through evolving pop culture, I had to go with “Alone.” Happy Birthday, AW!!

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As the leading single from the Bad Animals record in ’87, “Alone” secured the #1 chart spot in the US and Canada. The video—something of a nod to Romeo & Juliet—is equally compelling, and brilliantly shows off the power and charisma—particularly in Ann’s performance on this song, another reason to choose it for her birthday. It’s not the first video in which Ann and sis Nancy have played roles suggesting they might be something more than just friends and siblings (see “Nothin’ At All”).

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The song’s flames were fanned up again in 2005 when 21-year-old country singer Carrie Underwood brought it back to the limelight in season 4 of American Idol. Not to be outdone, Céline Dion recorded the song for her 2007 album Taking Chances, putting it out as a single the following year. Coincidentally, a few years earlier in ’03, Céline had cut another Steinberg/Kelly cover, her pun-intendedly driving version of the aforementioned “I Drove All Night.”

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Back to Heart, you can find the twin 1985 singles’ pages I made earlier elsewhere on the site: “Never” here, and “These Dreams” here—and more to come, most definitely. And to think that some critics actually believed Heart were washed up by the mid-’80s.

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Have notes to add? Let me know!

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YT:

full version

music video

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Heart’s official website