Just following on from something that was mentioned in the recent posts about "The Lover In Me" album, what a huge wasted opportunity to have had a huge hit single from the "Madness, Money & Music" album by not realising the potential of "Wind Beneath My Wings" and releasing it as a single.

According to Wikipedia, Sheena was the second artist to record it in 1982. The first was a easy-listening singer called Roger Whitaker. Three artists had US hits with it in 1983 (Gary Morris, Gladys Knight, and Lou Rawls). Why did Sheena never release it? It could have brought her music to a much wider audience had it caught on at radio and became a big hit.

Fast forward to 1989 and Bette Midler had a massive hit with it (linked to a huge movie) and the song is now recognised as a classic. I wonder how many people realise that Sheena was one of the first people to have recorded it.

It's almost as baffling to me as hiding "Wish You Were Here Tonight" (a beautiful ballad and my favourite Sheena song of all time) on the b-side to "Telefone".

Completely agree re both 'wind beneath my wings' and also 'wish you were here tonight'.

I do think Sheena's management made some strange singles choices from her albums but I suppose hindsight's a great thing

It's not management that decides the singles, it's the record label. I understand why the label went with Machinery (to protect her from becoming considered strictly an Adult Contemporary artist) and "I wouldn'y Beg For water" was a better single choice for pop airplay. While I think Sheena's version of Wind is the ultimate, I don't think it was exactly airplay material - the first verse is very slow and has no beat at all. It would have been a hard sell for the label especially since the first two singles never took off. I would have released "There When I Needed You" as the first single, 'I Wouldn't Beg For Water" as the second single, and "You Do It" as the third single.

I actually like "Machinery" and can definitely see the logic for it to be the lead single from the album.

I'd never thought of "You Do It" as a possible single. I like it but it's definitely more of an album track in my opinion.

"Madness, Money & Music" remains to this day my favourite album by Sheena.

I agree with you Joe. Hingsight is definitely a great thing.

"Machinery" is indeed a fun song!
But not exactly first-single material...
I think "Weekend In Paris" should've been the first single. I've always liked that song.
Or the title track. Great song.

My Sheena missed opportunities:

Releasing "Swear" as the third single from "A Private Heaven." Coming off of two top 10 hits and this stops at No. 80? I think if they had gone with "Love and Affection," they could have reconnected with the adult contemporary audience, had a pop hit and perhaps reinforced the R&B success of "Sugar Walls."

Using "My Cherie" as the first single from that album. So many other tracks seemed stronger and more fresh at the time -- "My Cherie" the single already sounded about two years out of date when it was released.

True Elias.

MY CHERIE sounds like a second rate Celine Dion album (my opinion). But why wasn't there a video for the title track? (or for the 2 follow-ups from WHAT COMES NATURALLY) Sheena said herself in an interview that the album was doomed to flop, since it's style was so out of fashion at that period.

As for MADNESS MONEY & MUSIC; I don't think it had sold so much better if other songs had been singles.
First; it was her 3rd album, and it sounded like the two first. That's ususally no good news...The public wants something new, and styles change.
And second; if you compare the songs on MMAM to other hit records by female artists in late 1982, like Laura Branigan's "Gloria", you see that the material on MMAM, was too AC, to have become big hit songs on the HOT 100.

There WAS a reason for the refreshed sound on BEST KEPT SECRET...

Re A private heaven, I think 'hard to say it's over' should've been a single, rather than swear.

Agree my cherie (the song) was a weak lead single, I actually really like the album but for me it was the weakest song on the album.

I think the difficulty with Sheena's career was trying to be all things to all people. She had never been regarded as trendy and her management/record company seemed determined to try to make her hip. When it was a great song, ie lover in me, strut etc, people bought the record because they liked the song, not because they were sheena fans.

But the long term effect was that she alienated those people who liked 'pop' sheena while not retaining her new fickle fans!!

Totally agree Roman

Why no promo videos for "You Can Swing It", "To Anyone" and "My Cherie", videos esp on MTV sell records, she had no chance and the lack of promotion esp for "My Cherie" didn't help. If she thought the album was doomed she probably just gave up.

Blair
x

I think the difficulty with Sheena's career was trying to be all things to all people. She had never been regarded as trendy and her management/record company seemed determined to try to make her hip. When it was a great song, ie lover in me, strut etc, people bought the record because they liked the song, not because they were sheena fans.

But the long term effect was that she alienated those people who liked 'pop' sheena while not retaining her new fickle fans!!

Joe, I completely agree. It reminds me a little bit of how Melissa Manchester had a huge hit with You Should Hear How She Talks About You. Then, for a while, all her subsequent singles were these teen-pop things that didn't connect with her adult contemporary audience. It felt like Sheena was going for this R&B audience that never fully materialized, as people were responding to the songs more than Sheena.

Couldn't agree with you more regarding your praise for "Love and Affection," Elias--a disarmingly warm, mature take on the Armatrading gem. Sheena demonstrated a real gift for interpretation on that tune--it's my favorite "Heaven" track after "Strut" and "Sugar Walls."

Love and Affection was my favourite ballad from A Private Heaven. It should have been released (that, or Hard to Say It's Over) after Sugar Walls, instead of Swear or Back in the City.

But then, Sheena has mentioned before in an interview I read that after the singer's recorded the tracks and hands over the songs to the record company, it's all up to the record company on what gets promoted when, where and how.

"Wind beneath my wings" was not an obvious first single from Madness Money and Music so, as it's been inferred, hindsight is indeed 20/20 :). I don't know anyone who picks that song as his fave Sheena single or even the best track off MM&M. Let's give Bette Midler or rather the hit movie "Beaches" some credit here. The film was 75% responsible for that song going to the pole position. Anyone who saw the movie would know the track perfectly depicted that friendship between the 2 female stars of that bittersweet, tissue soaking chick flick.

I love "Machinery" but it was downright dumb of EMI to put that out in the US especially after it barely scraped into the UK top 40 even though new wave was all over the charts there whereas in the US, new wave was still alternative and to expect & accept a song like that from Sheena Easton was asking too much then.
MM&M was a real adult contemporary album and Machinery didn't belong on that record kinda like the way Eternity didn't really fit in "No Sound but a heart".

It wasn't luck that EMI didn't drop Sheena after the relative 'failure' of MM&M. EMI realised it @#$&*
up. Sheena had just won the then prestigious Best New Artist Grammy and cracked the US market in a huge way (her previous 2 albums made gold) unlike say Kim Wilde who was dropped after her 3rd UK CD failed and hadn't made any inroads in the US except for 1 minor hit.

I would have picked "ARE YOU MAN ENOUGH" for the first US single. Yes it bombed in the UK but it came on the heels of the flop "Machinery". On it's own, the song was a tongue in cheek, upbeat, melody strong track and hit worthy.

My FAVORITE tracks of Madness though would be-

WEEKEND IN PARIS - OMG - the drama of the song - it flows like movie unreeling through your mind, the high on emotion vocal delivery by Sheena, the moody music. Sends chills down the spine.

ICE OUT IN THE RAIN - similar to the grey moody feel of Weekend in Paris but the trk stands on its own. The remix version is better.

Madness, money and music - ended up being the story of Sheena's music career. Heavy.

I appreciate MADNESS MONEY AND MUSIC more and more as I tack on the years of my life. It's Sheena's greatest record.


Sabeha