"Barracuda" is a song by Americanrock bandHeart, released in 1977 on their third studio album,Little Queen, and was released as the album's lead single. The song peaked at number 11 on theBillboard Hot 100. "Barracuda" was named the 34th-best hard rock song of all time byVH1 in 2009.^[3]

"Barracuda"
Single byHeart
from the albumLittle Queen
B-side	"Cry to Me"
Released	May 20, 1977
Recorded	1977
Studio	Kaye Smith,Seattle
Genre	Hard rock[1][2] heavy metal
Length	4:20
Label	Portrait
Songwriter(s)	Ann Wilson Roger Fisher Nancy Wilson Michael Derosier
Producer(s)	Mike Flicker
Heart singles chronology
"Dreamboat Annie" (1976) "Barracuda" (1977) "Little Queen" (1977)
Music video
"Barracuda" onYouTube

The song was included on the compilation albumsGreatest Hits/Live (1980),These Dreams: Greatest Hits (1997),Greatest Hits (1998),The Essential Heart (2002),Love Alive (2005),Playlist: The Very Best of Heart (2008) andStrange Euphoria (2012), and on the live albumsRock the House Live! (1991),The Road Home (1995),Alive in Seattle (2003) andLive in Atlantic City (2019).

Ann Wilson revealed in interviews that the song was about Heart's anger towardsMushroom Records, who as a publicity stunt released a made-up story of an incestuous affair involving Ann and her sisterNancy Wilson. The song particularly focuses on Ann's rage towards a male radio promoter who came up to her after a concert asking how her "lover" was. She initially thought he was talking about her boyfriend, band manager Michael Fisher. After he revealed he was talking about her sister Nancy, Ann became outraged, went back to her hotel room, and wrote the original lyrics of the song.^[4] When she relayed the incident to Nancy, she, too, was infuriated. Nancy joined Ann and contributed a melody and bridge.^[5]

ProducerMike Flicker added that Mushroom Records was so obtuse in the contract negotiations that Heart decided to discard the album they were working on,Magazine—which the label still released in an unfinished form—and instead sign with the newly formedPortrait Records to make another record,Little Queen. As Flicker put it,"'Barracuda' was created conceptually out of a lot of this record business bullshit. Barracuda could be anyone from the local promotion man to the president of a record company. That is thebarracuda. It was born out of that whole experience."^[6]

In a March 2019 interview withGear Factor, Nancy Wilson said:"We'd been opening for a band calledNazareth in Europe and also forQueen. And Nazareth had a hit with aJoni Mitchell song that they covered [in 1973] called "This Flight Tonight" that had kind of that riff. So we kind of borrowed that. And we made it into 'Barracuda'. And we saw the guys from Nazareth later and they were pissed. 'You took our riff!' But that's kind of what everybody—you borrow from what you love and then you make it your own. It's one of those sounds too, it's one of those guitar tones that I'm still trying to figure out what we did. [Laughs] It's hard to re-create."^[7]

"Barracuda" is ahard rock song incorporating elements ofpsychedelic rock.^[2] Upon the song's release, it became Heart's second top-20 entry in the United States, peaking at number 11 on theBillboard Hot 100, spending 20 weeks on the chart.^[8]

Cash Box called it "an aggressive rocker, tempered with sparkling production and Ann Wilson's alluring lead vocal.."^[9]Record World said that it is "tough, driving rock 'n' roll, topped by the Wilsons' evocative vocals."^[10]

"Barracuda" was played at the2008 Republican National Convention in reference toJohn McCain's running mate,Sarah Palin, who claims she was known as "Sarah Barracuda" as a high school basketball star (and as "Sarracuda" after the convention, a play on her name). The Wilson sisters disapproved, as they disagreed with Palin's politics, and sent acease-and-desist letter to John McCain's campaign,^[11] despite the McCain campaign's claim to have lawfully purchased rights to use the song.^[12]

In an appearance on a Seattle talk show, song co-writer and lead guitarist Roger Fisher announced he was thrilled with theRNC's use of the song, because it both resulted in royalties for the band and gave them an opportunity to publicly point out that he is a "staunch" supporter ofBarack Obama.^[13] Michael Derosier, a co-writer of the song and the band's drummer on the recording, also supports the use of the song by the RNC.^[14] The McCain campaign continued to use the song, despite Nancy Wilson's statement toEntertainment Weekly that "Sarah Palin's views and values in no way represent us as American women."^[12][15]

Credits adapted from the liner notes ofLittle Queen.^[16]

• Ann Wilson – lead vocals
• Nancy Wilson – acoustic guitar, backing vocals
• Roger Fisher – lead guitar
• Howard Leese – rhythm guitar;Mellotron
• Steve Fossen – bass
• Michael DeRosier – drums

• "Five Per Cent for Nothing", 1971 Yes instrumental whose title disparages the band's former manager
• "Death on Two Legs (Dedicated to...)", 1975 Queen song which similarly disparages the band's former manager and record label