Sacred Heart

Sacred Heart is Dio’s third studio album. It was released in 1985 on Warner Bros. Records. This album peaked at #29 on the Billboard 200. The cover art is done by Robert Florczak.

The RIAA certified Sacred Heart Gold (500,000 units sold) on October 15 1985. It was for a long time the last album to receive this certification, until The Very Beast of Dio was certified gold on November 3, 2009.

The accompanying stageshow was a spectacle involving a mechanised dragon and laser effects, as captured on video (and later DVD reissue). Ronnie James Dio and his band referred to the Dragon as “Dean”.

Sacred Heart is one of Dio’s most well-known albums, including hit singles such as Sacred Heart, Rock N’ Roll Children and Hungry For Heaven.

The inscription around the border of the cover is in Latin and reads FINIS PER SOMNIVM REPERIO TIBI SACRA COR VENEFICVS OSTIVM AVRVM. Because of the lack of punctuation it is difficult to determine the precise meaning, but a possible rendering is I learned of your goals through dreams: a sacred heart, a wizard, a golden door. But several other meanings are possible.

This was the last Dio album to include guitarist Vivian Campbell, who went on to join several other bands, most notably Def Leppard and Whitesnake.

Hungry for Heaven appeared in the Vision Quest movie.

Track listing
All lyrics written by Ronnie James Dio, music as stated

“King of Rock and Roll” (Dio, Vivian Campbell, Jimmy Bain, Vinny Appice) – 3:49