Sugar Walls

"Sugar Walls" is the second single from Sheena Easton's 1984 album A Private Heaven. It spent 16 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States, nine of which were in the top 40. It reached number 9 on the Hot 100,^[6] number 3 on the R&B chart^[7] and number 1 on the Dance chart.^[8] The song did not chart in Easton's native UK. The music was credited to Alexander Nevermind, a pseudonym used by Prince.^[9]

"Sugar Walls"
Single by Sheena Easton
from the album A Private Heaven
B-side	"Straight Talking"
Released	December 1984 (US)[1] March 1985 (UK)[2]
Recorded	January 20–21, 1984[3]
Genre	Dance-pop[4] funk[4] R&B[5]
Length	4:01
Label	EMI
Songwriter(s)	Prince (as Alexander Nevermind)
Producer(s)	Greg Mathieson, Prince
Sheena Easton singles chronology
"Strut" (1984) "Sugar Walls" (1984) "Swear" (1985)

"Sugar Walls" was given a special release on 13 April 2019, as a 12-inch single picture disc pressing by RT Industries (Razor & Tie), for 2019 National Record Store Day.

Background

The song title is presumed to be a euphemism for the lining of a vagina, and the general content was considered suggestive enough to qualify the song for the Filthy Fifteen.^[10][11][12] Although Easton's music video for "Sugar Walls" did not feature any controversial visual content, some broadcasters refused the video airplay because of the sexual imagery of the song's lyrics. Televangelist Jimmy Swaggart and Tipper Gore's PMRC criticised the song when it was first released.^[13]

Prince came up with the track after having been introduced to Sheena Easton through their engineer, David Leonard. Easton was a fan of Prince, and asked Leonard to see if Prince would be willing to work with her after watching her performance on ;;The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. At the time, Prince was working on mixing "Ice Cream Castle" for the Time, but once Leonard told him of Easton, Prince watched her performance of "Hard to Say It's Over" on the show and liked it.^[3]

Prince spent the next day recording the instrumental track and a guide vocal to send to Easton. Prince then supervised the recording of her vocals, and they both enjoyed working together. Their work on this track led to further collaborations on Prince's singles "U Got the Look" and "The Arms of Orion".^[3]

Personnel

Credits sourced from Duane Tudahl.^[3]

• Sheena Easton – lead and backing vocals
• Prince – backing vocal, synthesizers, electric guitar, Linn LM-1

Charts

Weekly charts Weekly chart performance for "Sugar Walls" Chart (1985) Peak position Australia (Kent Music Report)[14] 87 Canada (The Record)[15] 20 Canada Top Singles (RPM)[16] 27 New Zealand (Recorded Music NZ)[17] 30 UK Singles (OCC)[18] 95 US Billboard Hot 100[19] 9 US 12-inch Singles Sales (Billboard)[20] 1 US Hot Black Singles (Billboard)[21] 3 US Hot Dance/Disco (Billboard)[22] 1 US Cash Box Top 100[23] 5 West Germany (GfK)[24] 57

Year-end charts Year-end chart performance for "Sugar Walls" Chart (1985) Rank US Billboard Hot 100[25] 100 US 12-inch Singles Sales (Billboard)[26] 19 US Dance/Disco Club Play (Billboard)[26] 16 US Cash Box Top 100[27] 48

Popular culture

• The song was covered by Rachel Lester during her infamous audition on the fourth series of The X Factor in 2007.^[28]

See also

• List of number-one dance singles of 1985 (U.S.)