Newly restored footage of Heart, shot in 1977 during the cover shoot for their classic Little Queen album, has appeared online. While the footage has been seen before – Heart themselves have previously shared a low-resolution version – this new upload is much, much clearer.
The rather wonderful footage was shot at Griffith Park in Los Angeles, and shows legendary rock photographer Bob Seidemann at work. Seiderman, who died in 2017, shot portraits for more than 60 album covers including the controversial image of a topless underage girl adorning the cover of Blind Faith’s only album, the iconic image of Bob Seger gracing Stranger In Town, and that photo of Neil Young standing on a beach for – you guessed it – Neil Young’s On The Beach.
“We chose the gypsy motif for the cover art because it is a travelling band, and we thought it would be a spicy way to put it across,” says Ann Wilson in the video. “Over the past year or year and a half that we’ve been touring around, we’ve gradually gotten this feeling – this gypsy feeling, you know – going from town to town. We roll into these towns like the circus.”
The clip was originally used on The Midnight Special to preface some live performance footage of Heart, broadcast on December 30, 1977. Introduced by host Marilyn McCoo – lead vocalist in The 5th Dimension – the band can be seen playing Little Queen‘s title track. Footage of the band playing the classic Barracuda also featured on the show, which included appearances by Gladys Knight and the Pips, Dave Mason and Boz Scaggs.
Little Queen – Heart | The Midnight Special – YouTube 