Yesterday afternoon was an absolutely gorgeous early-fall afternoon, so I took advantage of the warm, sunny weather and did a long, refreshing 26 mile bike ride on the VCT, as is my habit. About seven miles into the ride, as my mind wandered, I had the melody of this particular tune pop into my mental soundtrack:

Random songs appearing without reason in my head is far from uncommon, though this one seemed odd, as I honestly hadn’t thought about it, or likely heard it at all, since shortly after it was released in ’89. It’s from a record I’ve never owned a copy of, it’s a song the band didn’t play live all pretty much at all, and of course, coming from the end of the post-makeup era, the record (apart from the big power-ballad single “Forever”) wasn’t a particularly huge hit overall.

But, it apparently lodged itself in a few spare brain cells, remaining hidden for 32-odd years until I was halfway through chugging up a steep hill in Charles City County…

Once I got back to my car after the ride, it was still fresh enough for me to pull the tune up on Spotify and give it a listen; and it wasn’t bad at all; in fact, I quite enjoyed it.

Part of the reason “Hide Your Heart” might have maintained some staying power is the fact that it was released five times, in five different versions, over the course of 1988-89, including a version released by former Kiss guitarist Ace Frehley four days before Kiss’ version.

It’s weird where my mind goes sometimes…however, afer listening to the song itself, I used it to seed a playlist algorithm, and came up with one hell of a mix that I’ve seriously been enjoying, and if you’re of a mind, I’ll share it with you here, if you’re up for some of the best of hair/glam/pop metal you’re likely to find anywhere.

\m/