Produced by Jimmy Iovine, the album was a big hit for Nicks, going double platinum in the U.S., reaching #5 on the Billboard album chart, and landing in the Top 10 on the album charts in Australia, Canada, and Iceland. The Wild Heart produced three Top 40 hits on the Billboard Hot 100: "Stand Back" (#5), "If Anyone Fails" (#14), and "Nightbird" (#33).
"Stand Back" was Nicks's third Top 10 song as a solo artist, though the first that wasn't a duet ("Stop Draggin' My Heart Around" with Tom Petty and "Leather and Lace" with Don Henley were her first two Top 10 solo songs). The song has a great backstory. On the day she and Kim Anderson married in January 1983, they were driving to their honeymoon in Santa Barbara and Prince's "Little Red Corvette" came on the radio. Nicks started humming the melody, inspiration struck, they stopped and bought a tape record, and the next thing you know, she recorded a demo of the song in the honeymoon suite that night.
When it came to recording the real thing in the studio a few weeks later, she called Prince and told him the story. Ever generous with his time and talents, Prince played an uncredited synthesizer on the song. And he wasn't the only amazing backing musician on the track. Among others, Toto guitarist and session wunderkind Steve Lukather, legendary session guitarist Waddy Wachtel, former King Crimson and Bob Dylan drummer Ian Wallace, and veteran session drummer Russ Kunkel contributed their talents to the song. I always thought the backing vocals sounded like Lindsey Buckingham (they are not), but now that I know it was recorded two weeks after Nicks's wedding, I suppose it would a little strange for her former lover to appear on the song.
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