Heart released the song as the first single from their ninth studio album, Bad Animals, in May 1987. Their version is a power ballad[2] that begins with a piano line and a subdued vocal from Ann Wilson, leading to a synth-led hard-rock chorus. Tom Kelly, the song's coauthor and himself an experienced session singer, provided the high harmony parts on the record.[3]
"Alone" is Heart's biggest hit in the US, spending three weeks at No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 in July 1987. It ranked No. 2 on the Billboard Year-End Top Pop Singles of 1987, behind "Walk Like An Egyptian" by The Bangles. It is also Heart's most successful single in the United Kingdom, where it peaked at No. 3 on the UK Singles Chart in June. It is the band's only song to peak inside the UK Top 5.
The song was also a global hit, reaching No. 1 in Canada, the top five in Ireland, Norway, and Switzerland, the top ten in Australia, Belgium and the Netherlands as well as the top twenty in Germany. An "unplugged" version of the song later appeared on Heart's 1995 album The Road Home. An extended version of "Alone" (5:30 long) was included on the Japanese 3" mini-CD of Heart's third single from Bad Animals, "There's the Girl".[4]
