38 years ago Heart Released ''Dreamboat Annie''

Dreamboat Annie is the debut album by American rock band Heart. At the time, the band was based in Vancouver B.C., and the album was recorded in B.C. and first released in Canada by Mushroom Records (Canada) in the fall of 1975. It was released in the United States on February 14, 1976 through the L.A. subsidiary of Mushroom Records (Canada). It contained three hit singles which became staples on FM radio. Producer Mike Flicker helped the group to polish their sound and obtain a recording contract with the label.

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Dreamboat Annie was released following the success of the second single. The album cover was designed by current Emily Carr University of Art and Design communication design instructor Deborah Shackleton Heart's first radio success earned them a spot opening a Montreal concert for Rod Stewart in October 1975.  More Canadian airplay soon followed, partly because Heart's recordings qualified for Canadian content broadcast requirements. The album sold an impressive 30,000 copies across Canada in its first few months.

Mushroom then formed a US division and released Dreamboat Annie on Valentine's Day 1976 in the Seattle area, where Heart's members had lived and played before relocating to Canada in the early 1970s. The album was played by Seattle stations KISW and KZOK and promptly sold another 25,000 copies in the local area. The group and their label then began working together to build success for the album city by city. According to Flicker, this was part of a plan to convince record distributors that Mushroom had a hit record, so that the album would get national distribution.