Okay, this is a big one. Six - count 'em SIX - records from Heart Records founder Ron Mahonin. Our favourite thing about this batch is that the earliest record is on Westmount Records, bridging the two, uh, powerhouses. Heart Records put out a pile of 7" records (most notably the trio from skinny tie guys The Kids) from 1979 through 1983, starting with Mahonin's "A Hit Song," which is included in that batch.
The Heart Archives have a great story about that first recording and how it came to be:
Placing semi-finalist in the American Song Festival, A Hit Song (aka Tryin' To Write A Hit Song) was first recorded by the group Player, giving Mahonin his first Gold record. Teaming up with manager Marc Gordon of Los Angeles, Mahonin's version of A Hit Song was produced in L.A. studio One Step Up. With a law suit in the works against an L.A. publisher, Mahonin recalls, "We did the record on spec, but no one would touch it. Even the Canadian record companies loved the record, but because of the legalities, we couldn't get a deal." Desperate to make at least some money back on the initial recording investment, the record was self-released in Canada. And the rest as they say, was history. The record achieved incredible airplay, broke on every major market station and a Canadian label was born.
We also found this great clipping from the Herald, from the early days of Heart:
Get this sextuplet of singles here!
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