Wild Heart of the Young

All songs written by Karla Bonoff, except where noted.

Rolling Stone's Stephen Holden notes that with this album Bonoff "has finally stopped playing the role of the passive loser…" and "strengthened her style to the point that she no longer sounds like an all-too-willing victim of love." He relates that "[i]n her finest performance, she turns Paul Kelly's "Personally,"… into a sly tour de force of sexual tease." And concludes of the album that "at its best it says goodbye to the smoggy, posh romanticism of Seventies L.A. with a confident kick of the heels."[2]

AllMusic's William Ruhlmann retrospectively describes "Personally" as "a coy and catchy pop song utterly uncharacteristic of Bonoff's other work." He opines that "Bonoff's original songs, which made up the bulk of the album, simply were not up to the standard set by her debut, and Wild Heart Of The Young was the weakest of her three Columbia Records albums."[1]

"Wild Heart of the Young" is the sound track in the season five episode of The Wonder Years "Broken Hearts and Burgers". It was also used in an episode of the mid-1980s soap opera Rituals.

• Karla Bonoff – lead vocals, piano, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, background vocals
• Russ Kunkel – drums, percussion
• Bob Glaub – bass guitar, electric guitar
• Andrew Gold – electric guitar, electric piano, organ, percussion, background vocals
• Danny Kortchmar - electric guitar
• Kenny Edwards – electric guitar, background vocals
• Hawk Wolinski – organ, electric piano, synthesizer
• Bill Payne – synthesizer, organ
• Steve Forman – percussion
• Ira Ingber – electric guitar
• Joe Walsh – electric guitar
• Waddy Wachtel – electric guitar
• David Sanborn - saxophone
• Victor Feldman – vibraphone
• Mark Jordan – organ
• Phil Kenzie – saxophone
• Don Henley – background vocals
• Timothy B. Schmit – background vocals
• J. D. Souther – background vocals
• Wendy Waldman – background vocals
• Brock Walsh – background vocals