The legendary rock band wrote the now-beloved hit song after their record label spread an inappropriate rumor for publicity.

One of the biggest hard-rock songs of all time came from the legendary band Heart after their record label at the time, Mushroom Records, spread a rumor about two members of the band without their consent in an attempt to increase publicity. This track, “Barracuda,” became one of Heart’s biggest hits of their career.

The song was born from a mess of issues that Heart had with their record company as they were working on their second album.

One of these problems specifically targeted band members and sisters Ann and Nancy Wilson, with the record label reportedly releasing a made-up story insinuating that the two had an incestuous relationship in order to get the group more attention, good or bad. It all came to a head when a radio promoter came up to Ann at a concert and referenced the rumor.

Nancy recalled the story to American Songwriter years later: “He was like… ‘So, Ann, how’s your lover?’ And she goes, ‘Oh, yeah, Mike’s great!’ And he goes, ‘No, no, I mean your sister, haha!’ So, the insinuation that we were lovers was, of course, not anywhere near true and really sleazy and inappropriate.”

The Mike referenced in the story was band manager Michael Fisher, whom Ann was in a relationship with at the time. Ann told Nancy about the encounter and the sisters had “a lot of anger around it, insult around it.” The two quickly used all that anger as inspiration to write a new song, finishing it by the next day.

Talking about how quickly the song came together to become a huge hit, Nancy added, “It was really powerful. It just fell into place like the good ones usually do. It’s sort of a galloping steed. It’s a monster of a song.”

Soon after, Heart left Mushroom Records and signed a new deal with the CBS subsidiary Portrait Records. The band released its next album, Little Queen, in 1977, with “Barracuda” as the first official single.

The song was very successful, peaking at No. 11 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, while it also charted well in many other countries. It broke into the Top 10 in Canada, the Netherlands, South Africa, and Germany.

But even decades after “Barracuda” was first released, it remains both one of Heart’s biggest tracks and one of the best hard-rock songs ever. Ultimate Classic Rock ranked it at No. 41 on its list of the “Top 100 Classic Rock Songs,” while the song has featured on many other similar lists.

DJ Taz's Take: Great band, awesome songs. The record label made a foolish accusation that cost them millions in the end.

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