The group intended
Magazine to be the official follow-up to their debut album
Dreamboat Annie. However, a contract dispute with their label,
Mushroom Records, resulted in the group signing with the newly formed
Portrait Records, a division of
CBS Records (now
Sony BMG). The Mushroom contract called for two albums, and the label took the position that they were owed a second one. On that basis, Mushroom attempted to prevent the release of
Little Queen and any other work by Heart. They took the five unfinished tracks for
Magazine and added a B-side and two live recordings. The first release of the album in April 1977 included a disclaimer on the back cover. The court eventually decided that Heart was free to sign with a new label, but indeed owed Mushroom a second album. Therefore, Heart returned to the studio to re-record, remix, edit, and resequence the
Magazine recordings in a marathon session over four days. A court-ordered guard stood nearby to prevent the master tapes from being erased.
Little Queen was released on May 14, 1977, and the reworked version of
Magazine was entered
Billboard on April 22, 1978. With the successful single "
Barracuda",
Little Queen outsold
Magazine handily, eventually earning a triple platinum certification from the
Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). The ad looked like the front page of the
tabloid newspaper National Enquirer and included a photo from the
Dreamboat Annie cover shoot. The caption read: "Heart's Wilson Sisters Confess: 'It Was Only Our First Time!'" After this ad surfaced, a Detroit radio promoter asked
Ann Wilson about her lover—referring to
Nancy, thus implying that the sisters were incestuous lesbian lovers. Ann was outraged and retreated to her hotel room to write a song. When she relayed the incident to Nancy, she, too, was infuriated. Nancy joined Ann and contributed a melody and bridge. The song became "Barracuda", which entered
Billboard Hot 100 on May 28, and peaked at number 11. and remains one of the band's signature songs. ==Track listing==