Sheena Easton - The Lover In Me (1988)

The Lover In Me

Days Like This

101 - written and produced by Prince

Cool Love - written and produced by Prince

Fire and Rain

This is Prince's demo of 101

I did not like "The Lover in Me," and was shocked when it reached #2 on the charts in early '89.

If It's Meant To Last

Most of the album was the L.A. & Babyface sound of the late 80s. Bobby Brown, Pebbles, Karyn White, Sheena....

Sheena performing The Lover In Me on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson in November of '88.

I miss Johnny.

Utterly forgettable.

This was a great album but didn't get the reception it deserved. She was trying to become an edgy R&B diva but everyone ignored her. Her career never recovered

Ah, I remember when our tiny little diva was transformed from a top-40 "good girl" into a feline funktress by Prince and Babyface.

We all smirked at that double entendre title.

Sheena Easton today. A little more porky but basically okay. She'll be 59 this April.

I saw her perform in London a couple of months ago in the West End production of 42nd Street. She wasn’t porky.

My favorite song by Sheena Easton. It was her very first hit and her biggest hit - went to #1 and earned her a gold record.

"Morning Train".

Sheena: Right photo, back in the day. Left, more recent.

This song always just reminds me of the health club commercials she was doing around the same time.

This is the album that defined the 80s!

I remember her work out commercials on tv. Loved that woman.

I'll never forget Paul Grein in Billboard backhandedly complementing Sheena when "What Comes Naturally" cracked the top twenty of the Hot 100 with managing to keep her career "lukewarm" for ten years. She hasn't visited that chart since...

Jody, Sheena... Who's your next thread about?

Vanessa Williams' 'The Right Stuff'?

Also from 1988, the renowned anti-gay, Pebbles?

Talk about SERIOUS!

Who are all these hot men??? Especially the Latino who is shirtless wearing the vest?

Cool Love is a fave. Especially Prince’s guitar solo at the end.

101 was an amazing song. The Lover in Me not so much. My guess is to why it was so popular is that it sounded exactly like a Karyn White song and that particular popular melody and production carried it.

That was kind of cunty of Paul Grein. She was actually one of the few who won a Best New Artist Grammy to keep their career going for 10 years. Men at Work couldn't do it, Culture Club couldn't do it, Christopher Cross, Bruce Hornsby, Jody Watley, Tracy Chapman, etc... none of them could do it.

Sheena had 15 Top 40 hits, 8 of those Top 10 and four of those Top 5, and she scored big hits throughout those 10 years, not all at the beginning. From 1964-2007 (I didn't go back further than that because I don't know the careers of most of those people), only 12 artists were still having chart hits ten years after winning the Grammy for Best New Artist. It really is a curse.

Oh, and I meant to add that only one of the artists I did not count was because she died only a few years later (Amy Winehouse). So there was no way to predict how she'd still be doing, but I have a feeling if she was still recording, she'd still be successful.

I liked the Prince and Angela Winbush produced tracks from that album the most.

I always wondered who in the lyric “talk about the lover in me” the conversation was supposed to be with. What did Sheena want to discuss concerning this internal lover? Her mother? A girlfriend? Her gynecologist?

Strut and Sugar Walls were not mediocrity.

R31. Her lover.

With the exception of What Comes Naturally, this was the last hurrah for Sheena as a pop star.

She looked AMAZING at the time, partly in thanks to her commercials for Bally's.

I was so into her throughout the 80s-early 90s.

101 is a great track. Love it.

Rolling Stone magazine, 1989: "The Lover In Me" (MCA) by Sheena Easton has got to be one of the most satisfying comeback albums this year. A new label and a clearer musical vision stretches Easton's vocal gifts considerably. Adopting a genuine R&B dance mode, the album's material overall is quite strong and is destined to garner Easton many new fans. Of the L.A. & Babyface productions on the album, the hit title track, "Days Like This" and "No Deposit, No Return" are the standouts featuring the production duo's customary style. One of our favorites is the Angela Winbush penned and produced "Fire and Rain," a sultry, soulful and very Isley-ish slow number that we hope clicks at radio.

No Deposit No Return

Follow My Rainbow

Follow My Rainbow? That's too gay even for DL.

[quote] I liked the Prince and Angela Winbush produced tracks from that album the most.

Yeah. I was on an Angela Winbush kick at the time and LOVED "Fire and Rain." The Prince songs were OK. I thought "101" was a little underdeveloped for a single.

Anybody remember this?

Strut, pout, put it out, That's what you want from women.

Yes, Fire and Rain is a stellar r&b ballad. Loved it.

One Love

R26 This video is what happens when you want to do a Janet Jackson-style number, but you only have $15,000 and the dancers who were rejected from the "When I Think of You" shoot.

R1 Despite the fact that poor Sheena couldn't dance a step (she made Whitney Houston look like Ginger Rogers), I loved this video! It had all the essential 1980s elements - a "club" setting, sweaty, writhing bodies, the hot, oiled-up body builder saxophone player from the Tina Turner videos, and the sexy black dancer guy from the Janet Jackson and Pebbles videos, who I understand is now a woman.

not shit, r47. the sexy black dude transitioned?

time sure flies by...

R48 'Tis true. His name was Rudy Houston. She's now Lana Houston:

"Hard to believe it's been nearly 30 years since it's release. "

Hard to believe it's been nearly 30 years since you flunked English 101.

thank you, school marm. how shitty is your life?

My life is grammatically accurate, OP/R52, and not shitty, unlike your illiterate scrawls.

Sheena was and still is the bomb. Come back, Sheena!

Girls back then could sing. Now, not so much.

Why on earth did she dump Joshua Sasse? He's smart, poetic and hot.

Allmusic gave the album just 2 stars (and What Comes Naturally just 1 star).

It gave a rave to 1985's "Do You", with 4 stars.

Billboard magazine, December 1988: "The Lover In Me" shows Sheena Easton taking her career in a new direction. With production by L.A. & Babyface, Angela Winbush, Jellybean Benitez, and Prince, the album is smart, sexy, and soulful.

[quote]the hot, oiled-up body builder saxophone player from the Tina Turner videos

Although he was hot, he wasn’t Timmy Cappello. This is Timmy Cappello...

Yeah. They're two different sax players.

The Lover In My is a jam and I still crank it from time to time. Angela Winbush’s Fire & Rain is another standout track. Thanks OP, I know what cd to put in my car next.

*The Lover in ME

I love Fire and Rain and Cool Love.

Although songs like ‘The Lover In Me’ and “Days Like This” sported a new street smart sound, Easton’s music had become interchangeable with other artists like Pebbles or Vanessa Williams. Much of the reason The Lover In Me sounded so familiar was because some of the best R&B producers of the era were involved in the project. For that reason the album got a bad rap by some traditional Sheena Easton fans.

Sittin' around thinkin' about my lover.

The 12" single

Janet Jackson’s dancer/choreographer Tina Landon is in TLIM video as well.

Dominic Sent directed The Lover In Me video.

Dominic Sena

Dominic Sena? He so directed all the good Janet videos. He went on to direct some films (Kalifornia, Swordfish).

Hugh Jackman's character in 'Swordfish' wore mostly clothing from GAP!

A much better Prince-written song by Deborah Allen in 1987:

Love Telepathy. Have that album on cassette. Lots of good tracks on it. Wish it was available digitally.

Could never stand her or her bland, bland shrieky voice. Another of the many sins Esther fucking Rantzen committed upon an unsuspecting world.

Hi, Madonna, r74.

I miss sassy/sexy Sheena.

I miss Sheena, Jody, Karyn, Pebbles and Vanessa too.

But I sure don't miss Janet.

[quote]But I sure don't miss Janet.

There’s no need to miss her, since she’s still the Queen out here touring, releasing #1 albums and inspiring the children.

[quote] There’s no need to miss her, since she’s still the Queen out here touring, releasing #1 albums and inspiring the children.

Uh-oh, Jabba's been roused from the basement of the swamp it lives in with its mother. It's like someone sent out the Fat signal, and Jabba appears.

I like Sheena not Janet. I don't like anything "Jackson".

[quote]I like Sheena not Janet. I don't like anything "Jackson".

Oh, so YOU’RE that one person!

Nikki Harris singing backup for Sheena on Arsenio...

Keep Vadgebot and Janbot out of the Sheena thread please.

I don't think Vadge appreciated that Sheena was getting R&B airplay and charting on the Billboard R&B chart.

Vadge didn't like that Sheena was having success with Prince either, hence, her shit Prince song from Like A Prayer "Love Song".

I thought Sheena was much more appealing than Madonna, Janet or Whitney at the time. She wasn't forced down everyone's throat like those bigger bitches were.

I concur r87. I loved Sheena's r&b/dance/pop phase.

Bump.

Here's a video of the old gal belting out Sugar Walls from this weekend in Napa. I wasn't able to go so thank to the queen who posted this on YT.

[QUOTE] .the sexy black dude transitioned?

SHE WAS ALWAYS A WOMAN! YOUR WORDS ARE LITERALLY KILLING HER!!!!!

She was stunning.

I LOVED this album and reminds me so much of high school.

Too bad it was basically the end of Easton’s career

Sheena got rid of her brogue in the latest video.