The Glamorous Life Sheila E album

Warner Bros. Records

album

Me and my bass player, André Cymone, were fighting about which one of us was going to marry you.

The career of Sheila Escovedo began in 1976. A one-time aspirational track athlete, she transitioned to musical percussion at an early age, following in the footsteps of her father Pete Escovedo. Living in Oakland, California, she quit school to join him on tour and developed a passion for the drums and was soon an accomplished player, landing a spot as a percussionist for jazz-funk artist-come-producer George Duke.

It was while performing a show with Duke in Sausalito in 1977, Sheila first encountered Prince, who happened to be in the city laying down his debut album For You. On meeting Prince she was surprised this rising star had been keenly following her career. In this meeting Prince invited her to join his band. In the meantime, Sheila got roles in various touring bands for Diana Ross, Herbie Hancock and Marvin Gaye, and in 1986 was opening act for Lionel Richie. Prince guested on stage along side Richie during Sheila’s opening set in Minneapolis on 3 October 1986.

In February 1984, she visited Prince and Sunset Studios while he was working on Around The World In A Day, and encouraged to put together a solo album with her as the vocalist. That March, Sheila and Prince recorded their first collaboration together, putting co-lead vocals to his track Erotic City, B-side to Let’s Go Crazy – Prince’s second chart topping single supporting Purple Rain. Sheila then became an occasional member of Prince’s backing band and was given the stage name Sheila E.

Under the terms of his contract with Warner Bros Records, Prince was permitted to sign acts to the label and so put together The Glamorous Life Sheila E’s debut project as a solo artist. Despite protestations to the contrary, every one of its tracks were written by Prince albeit credited to Sheila, excepting Noon Rendezvous which is co-credited to Prince: “They didn’t want people to know she was backed up by Prince, because it would look like she wasn’t making it on her own merits… but everyone knows when you hear the album, you can tell it’s him.” Prince performed all the instruments, too.

Dating from December 1983, the title track is the album’s oldest, and was originally intended by Prince to include on the LP for Apollonia 6. Passing it over to Sheila, it bought the album’s success, as well as a double Grammy nomination. The Glamorous Life was recorded at Sunset Sound in Hollywood between December 1983 and April 1984, with Sheila’s vocals recorded in the space of a few days in early April. The album was released that June, with Prince’s production credit obscured under the name of The Starr ★ Company. The Glamorous Life climbed to number 28 in the Billboard album chart, and on 10 January 1985 was certified Gold by RIAA. The Glamorous Life produced two hit singles – the title track charting at 7 in the Hot 100 in the week of 6 October 1984 (the same week Prince held the number one position with Let’s Go Crazy) and The Belle Of St Mark which peaked at 37 on Billboard’s singles chart. The LP garnered a slew of Grammy nominations in 1985 – four in fact: the title track as Best R&B Song and Best Vocal Performance, Strawberry Shortcake for Best Instrumentation, and Sheila E as Best New Artist. Her new found fame got her invited to participate in the recording of We Are The World.

From November 1984, Sheila joined Purple Rain Tour as Prince and The Revolution’s opening act. She was afterwards enlisted as a full-time member in Prince’s touring lineup following the disbanding of The Revolution in 1986. Becoming his drummer on the Sign O’ The Times Tour in 1987 and its subsequent Lovesexy Tour 1988/9 – during which she was additionally Prince’s musical director. Throughout this time their relationship grew, and while in Europe on Sign O’ The Times Tour, midway through performing Purple Rain Prince mouthed to her the words ‘Marry me’. Come the end of Lovesexy ’89, the strain being on the road found them grow apart and led to Sheila quitting the band upon the tour’s conclusion. Sheila appears in numerous Prince songs in this period, notably Erotic City, I Would Die 4 U [Extended Version], A Love Bizarre, Pop Life [Remix], Girls & Boys, U Got The Look, Scarlet Pussy, Eye No, Escape and I Wish U Heaven (Part 1, 2 & 3). She was also the inspiration behind The Black Album. She would record three solo albums with Prince: The Glamorous Life, Romance 1600 and her self-titled third LP Sheila E.

Sheila was a key recruiter for Prince. Introducing him to several of her own backing band that would at various points join his touring lineup: Miko Weaver in 1984, Boni Boyer and Levi Seacer Jr in 1986, Rhonda Smith and Kat Dyson in 1996, and finally Renato Neto in 2001. In 2019, Prince’s version of The Glamorous Life and Noon Rendezvous with his guide vocals was released by Warner Brothers in the compilation Originals. Sheila E continued to collaborate with Prince on and off until 2011, guesting on his tours as well as making appearances in the studio albums Musicology, 3121 and Planet Earth. In 2016, Rolling Stone ranked Sheila E 58th in their top 100 drummers of all time.

Performers

Vox / Percussion

Sheila E

All instruments

Prince

Cello

David Coleman ^{Oliver’s House and The Glamorous Life}

Violin

Novi Novog ^{Next Time Wipe The Lipstick Off Your Collar}

Accordion

Nick DeCaro ^{Next Time Wipe The Lipstick Off Your Collar}

Saxophone

Larry Williams ^{The Glamorous Life}

Data

Producers

Prince (as The Starr ★ Company) and Sheila E

Label

Warner Bros. Records

Distribution

Warner Bros. Records

Cover/Design

Larry Williams, Jeff Ayeroff and Laura LiPuma

Released

42 years ago on 4 June 1984

Running Time

39:42

US Chart Peak

28

US R&B Peak

7

UK Chart Peak

Did not chart

Orig. Formats

Tracklist

1. The Belle Of St. Mark [feat. Jill Jones] (5:08)
2. Shortberry Strawcake [feat. Prince] (4:44)
3. Noon Rendezvous (3:50) ¹
4. Oliver's House [feat. Jill Jones] (6:20)
5. Next Time Wipe The Lipstick Off Your Collar (3:50)
6. The Glamorous Life [feat. Prince] (8:58)
7. The Glamorous Life [Club Edit] (6:33)

Released as a single

¹ Cowritten with Sheila E.

Supporting tour

Purple Rain Tour

1984/5

• 98 shows from 4 November 1984 to 7 April 1985

The Glamorous Life album review

Of Sheila E’s three albums completed with Prince, The Glamorous Life, her 1985 debut album, is the better of these. It houses Sheela’s two true crowd-pleasers the title track and The Belle Of St. Mark. The standout track on the album and one of the best by all Prince’s associate acts, is The Belle Of St. Mark. This quintessential Revolution era tune is woefully overlooked even by Prince fans – is a most memorable track. It has that “I didn’t know that was Prince” background to it and if it were released by The Bangles the song would have received the success enjoyed levied on Manic Monday.

Sheila has prodigious talent as a drummer and percussionist, but her albums did not invite repeat listening. The percussion sections became repetitive, even a little too long to play all the way through. For a prime example take A Love Bizarre (Romance 1600), although this is doubtless her most iconic song due to the provenance it has with Prince, it rambles on for twelve minutes. There are further examples too, in The Glamorous Life: Oliver’s House – yes, it is catchy, but the instrumental is 3 minutes too long, as is Shortberry Shortcake. That is not to say the work is self-indulgent they just offer the listen enough reward. What does, however, are the heart beating and melodic Noon Rendezvous, the album’s third best song.

The Glamorous Life is rated 3 out of 5 by Goldies Parade.