Synopsis

Heart perform the power ballad in a dark, gothic fantasy world of ruined rooms, candlelit interiors, billowing curtains and theatrical shadows. Ann Wilson delivers the song with intense close-ups, while Nancy Wilson appears at the piano and guitar. The video builds toward a series of surreal images, including an exploding piano, a black horse moving in slow motion and the sisters facing one another across a wrecked ballroom. Its extravagant imagery turns the song's loneliness and longing into a grand piece of 1980s rock melodrama.

Factoids & Trivia

• "Alone" was released in 1987 as the first single from Heart's album "Bad Animals." The song became one of the band's signature power-ballad videos and helped define their glossy MTV-era comeback.

• The song had been written several years earlier by Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly. Before Heart recorded it, the writers released their own version as the duo i-Ten.

• The clip's gothic imagery deliberately pushes the song beyond a straightforward band performance. The ruined ballroom, candles, veils, horse and shattered piano give it the atmosphere of a romantic horror film.

• The video's visual treatment became part of a wider discussion about the way Heart was presented during the 1980s. Contemporary criticism noted that the camera often favored Nancy Wilson's body and showed Ann Wilson mainly in tightly framed shots, rather than presenting the lead singer as a full-bodied frontwoman.

• The dramatic zoom toward Ann Wilson during the song's climactic vocal passage is one of the video's most memorable editing choices. It matches the oversized production style of the recording and emphasizes the emotional force of her performance.

• "Alone" became Heart's second No. 1 single on the Billboard Hot 100 and remained at the top for three weeks.