1977 Rock Classic, Written in Response to an Unwelcome Remark, Turns 49
49 years ago today, on May 20, 1977, Heart released their defiant rock anthem "Barracuda." The song appearing on the band's second album, Little Queen, was written by Heart sisters Ann and Nancy Wilson, alongside then lead guitar player Roger Fisher and bassist Michael Derosier.
Easily recognized by its opening guitar riff, which drives the rock melody, "Barracuda" showcases Ann's powerful vocals as she serves up ferocious lyrics that were written in response to a "sleazy" comment from a music business executive. "Barracuda" cleverly uses the predatory fish as a metaphor to represent the person's exploitative nature.
In an interview, Heart guitarist Nancy shared the story behind the song, telling American Songwriter that the man had directed his attention to Ann, pointing out one of Heart's album covers, which featured her and Nancy together. At the time, the man was trying to insinuate that Nancy and Ann were intimately involved.
"There was this one sleazy guy at a record company or promoter - I can't even remember where from, exactly. You know that type; there's a lot of those kinds of guys in this business," Nancy said. "And he was like, because of our album cover where we had bare shoulders touching … "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 was really sleazy and inappropriate."
"We were just young enough, just idealistic enough to take it pretty badly and have a lot of anger around it, insults around it. So Ann went and fired off those words, and we finished it maybe that night or the next day," she added.
Although the male figure's comment was unwelcome, Heart and the sisters of the band got the last laugh as their song went on to become a timeless anthem. Although the track didn't reach No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart (It peaked at No. 11), in 2025, "Barracuda" was voted as the "Greatest Song Sung by Female Rockers," per Ranker.
"That song started out as a personal revenge-type of song," Nancy acknowledged. "But the longer it was out in the world and the longer we played it, it became more universal because there are so many damn barracudas out there everywhere."
Related: 1973 Hit Ranked Among ‘Greatest Guitar Riffs of All Time' Turns 53
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This story was originally published May 19, 2026 at 9:13 PM.