Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).
The Glamorous Life (1984)
The genius of Prince really knows no bounds. The guy was just insanely prolific. In addition to his brilliant catalog and the hours and hours of unreleased recordings in his vault, Prince also wrote songs that were huge hits for other artists: Sinead O'Connor, the Time, Vanity, Apollonia, the Bangles and many more.
Prince originally wrote "The Glamorous Life" for the Apollonia 6, but in 1984 he decided to give it to another female artist he started working with: Sheila E.
Sheila Escovedo began performing in the mid-1970s as a percussionist for the George Duke Band. She worked with many artists, including Michael Jackson, Marvin Gaye and Herbie Hancock. She met Prince in 1977 and later played on the song "Erotic City" in 1984. Prince (under the pseudonym The Starr Company) then produced her debut album The Glamorous Life.
The title track was a 9-minute whopper about the decadence and emptiness of a woman leading a materialistic life.
"She wears a long fur coat of mink/Even in the summertime/Everybody knows from the coy little wink/The girl's got a lot on her mind/She's got big thoughts, big dreams/And a big brown Mercedes sedan/What I think this girl/She really wants is to be in love with a man/She wants to lead the glamorous life/She don't need a man's touch/She wants to lead the glamorous life/But without love, it ain't much."
The single version was 3:41 and the club edit was 6:33. Adorned with plenty of Sheila E. percussion, the song was a big hit, going to #7 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #1 on the Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart.
"She saw him standing in the section marked/'If you have to ask, you can't afford it' lingerie/She threw him bread and said, 'Make me scream'/In the dark, what could he say/Boys with small talk and small minds/Really don't impress me in bed/She said 'I need a man's man, baby'/Diamonds and furs/Love would only conquer my head."
The album hit #28 on the Billboard 200. Sheila E. would get two Grammy nominations and the song's video was nominated for three MTV video awards. She toured as the opening act on Prince's Purple Rain tour and the two were y romantically involved; later in the decade, they were briefly engaged.
She participated in the USA for Africa charity song "We Are the World" in 1985. Sheila E. had less success with her second album, 1985's Romance 1600, although "A Love Bizarre" reached #11 on the Hot 100. Her third album, Sheila E., only hit #56 on the album chart. But she followed that up by serving as Prince's musical director on tours from 1987 to 1989.
Sheila left Prince's organization in 1989, releasing the album Sex Cymbal in 1991, but it only hit #146 on the Billboard 200 and the singles didn't chart. In the '90s, she bounced around a bit, playing with Gloria Estefan, Japanese singer Namie Amuro and as bandleader for Magic Johnson's short-lived talk show. In the early 2000s, she had three stints in Ringo Starr's All-Starr Traveling Band. She made up with Prince and performed with him several times in the 2000s, touring with him from 2010-2012.
After Prince's death in 2016, Sheila and the New Power Generation played a tribute medley to Prince on the B.E.T. Awards and was the musical director of a Prince tribute concert.
Prince's original demo of "The Glamorous Life" was posthumously released in 2019 on the album Originals.
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