1977 · Behind the Songs
“Born from a record company’s cheap publicity stunt, ‘Barracuda’ turned Heart’s anger into one of rock’s fiercest riffs.”
Few rock songs have an origin story as furious as “Barracuda.” After a concert, a radio promoter asked Ann Wilson how her “lover” was — meaning her sister Nancy — a question planted by a sleazy publicity stunt from their label, Mushroom Records, which had circulated a made-up story suggesting an incestuous affair between the sisters. Ann was livid. Back at her hotel room that night, she poured the anger into a song; Nancy contributed the melody and the bridge.
Writing and Recording
“Barracuda” was written by Ann Wilson, Roger Fisher, Nancy Wilson and Michael Derosier, and produced by Mike Flicker as the lead single from Heart’s third studio album, Little Queen. Its galloping riff — which has been noted as borrowing from Nazareth’s cover of Joni Mitchell’s “This Flight Tonight” — drives the track like an engine, while Ann’s vocal practically spits fire.
The single was released on May 20, 1977, with the album Little Queen following the same month. The cover of that album, showing the sisters bare-shouldered, prompted Ann and Nancy to write the pointed song “Love Alive” as a response to the industry’s treatment of them — but it was “Barracuda” that said it loudest.
Chart Journey and Legacy
“Barracuda” reached No. 11 on the Billboard Hot 100 and went Top 10 on the Cash Box chart, becoming Heart’s signature song and a hard-rock standard. It later ranked among the greatest hard rock songs ever compiled — VH1 placed it at No. 34 on its 2009 list — and it even surfaced in the 2008 U.S. presidential campaign, played at rallies for vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin, whose high school nickname was “Sarah Barracuda.”
What to listen for: that relentless opening riff and Ann’s opening howl — fury, focus and one of the tightest rhythm sections in 1970s rock, all in four minutes.