Sheena Easton sets a Billboard chart record when Sugar Walls becomes a Top 10 R&B hit
The controversial Prince-penned song Sugar Walls reaches 9 on the Billboard charts.To be fair this same feat might have been achieved by Elvis Presley had the Dance chart existed during his heyday.But that is not to take anything away from Easton who in her journey from the sweet and innocent Morning Train (9 to 5) to the salacious Sugar Walls accomplished a degree of crossover success that even such notorious musical shape-shifters as Madonna Cher and Olivia Newton-John never matched.And it is also fair to point out Elvis Presley never matched Sheena Eastons additional feat of squeezing in a Grammy for Best Mexican-American Performance (for 1985s Me Gustas Tal Como Eres). Sugar Walls also appeared on a very different chart in 1985 The so-called Filthy 15 chart of the most objectionably dirty popular songs in existence as chosen by Tipper Gore and her Parents Music Resource Council.
The PMRC found the songs unsubtle metaphors objectionable enough to give Sugar Walls the 2 spot on the Filthy 15 second only to Princes even less subtle Darling Nikki.In the eyes of the diverse fellow-musicians who heaped their scorn upon the PMRC (e.g.Frank Zappa Dee Snider Ice-T Metallica Sonic Youth) it is quite possible that this accomplishment earned Sheena Easton even more musical street cred than the chart record she set on this day in 1985.
