Bump In The Road

Sheena's next album saw her team up with producer Nile Rogers. Do You was released in 1985 to mixed reviews and only moderate sales. It was hardly her best work it has to be said, the tracks are overlong and the material is at best average. The one shining moment is the lead single Do It For Love, a repetitive but catchy dance/rock number. She recorded a follow up album No Sound But A Heart with producer Narada Michael Walden, the pretty bland effort was pulled after the lead single Eternity, a Prince ballad, was DOA. Sheena didn't hold that against Prince though, as she was a guest vocalist on his single U Got The Look, a big hit all around the world in 1987.

The MCA Years

MCA Records quickly snapped up Sheena and put her to work on an R&B record with all the best producers, Babyface & L.A. Reid, Angela Winbush, Jellybean Benitez and Prince! Shortly before the release she got a recurring role on Miami Vice which helped boost her celebrity status no end! The lead single The Lover In Me was not only a massive US pop hit, peaking at #2, but it also returned Sheena to the UK charts after a long absence. The album quickly went gold in the US, but further singles flopped. Although 101 (The Remix) was a #1 Dance/Club hit in 1989. Later that year Sheena had a Top 40 hit with The Arms Of Orion, another duet with Prince taken from his soundtrack to the Batman movie.

Sheena disappeared for awhile but returned with an even sexier new image and a new album in 1991, What Comes Naturally. The lead single of the same name was a Top 20 hit in the US and did very well in Australia too. But the album didn't take off. Maybe people just didn't take Sheena all that seriously as a fully fledged R&B act. Further albums followed, 1993's standards set No Strings garnered excellent reviews. 1995's My Cherie was her final US release, the album was back to basics for Sheena as it followed the A/C pop stylings of her early work. Sheena contiuned to release albums in Japan including Freedom in 1997 and Home in 1999.

Too fabulous!

While co-starring in a show in Las Vegas with David Cassidy, Sheena got a call from Universal Music in the UK. She was asked to record a dance album of her favourite songs. The result is perhaps one of the gayest albums ever released, the aptly named Fabulous, released in 2000. Sheena belted out such classics as Never Can Say Goodbye, Donna Summer's Love Is In Control, and The Three Degrees hit Giving Up Giving In, which was the lead single. Sadly this exercise in decadence and pure camp didn't sit well with audiences who saw Sheena as a bandwagon jumper, after the recent success of Cher and other popular 80's acts like Blondie and Culture Club returning to the pop charts. In fact many accused her of callously going for the pink pound. And to that I say Strut, Sugar Walls and any number of Sheena's 80's singles and album tracks! She was releasing slutty pop when the likes of Madonna were still singing about their holidays! Nevertheless the album bombed and Sheena hasn't come back since! She did, however, have a successful live residency at te Las Vegas Hilton which made her amongst the wealthiest British female entertainers in 2002! Please come back Sheena!

- Jamie