CoronaVinyl Day 440 (E): A Private Heaven by Sheena Easton

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Today's CoronaVinyl category is "E," and like other letters, I'm down to repeat artists.  I went with Sheena Easton's fifth studio album, 1984's A Private Heaven.

Easton had built up a nice little cadre of hits in the early '80s, having charted eight Top 40 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 between 1980 and 1983, including four Top 10 songs and one #1 (1981's "9 to 5 (Morning Train)," which should only remind you of Kramer).  With A Private Heaven, Easton consciously tried to change her image from a nice, innocent Scottish girl into more of a sexy, sultry Scottish girl.  Not only is she dressed and positioned provocatively on the album cover, but the songs themselves are a little more mature and risqué.  

It paid off.  The album was Easton's highest-charting on the Billboard album chart, reaching #15, and it's her only platinum-selling album in the U.S.  The synth poppy "Strut" -- chastising sexism -- was Easton's fifth Top 10 hit on the Billboard Hot 100, reaching #7, and it was nominated for a Grammy for Best Pop Female Vocal Performance.  And "Sugar Walls" was penned by Prince under the pseudonym Alexander Nevermind, and it was about, well, lady parts.  It was sexually suggestive enough to land on Tipper Gore and the PMRC's Filthy Fifteen (meaning Prince had two songs on the list, along with "Darling Nikki"), and it too was a Top 10 hit, going to #9.  A third song, "Swear," was a minor hit, reaching #80 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Easton would go on to collaborate with Prince several more times over the next few years -- including dueting with Prince on his 1987 hit "U Got the Look," which hit #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 -- and after A Private Heaven, she had another five Top 40 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, including two more Top 10 songs ("U Got the Look" and 1988's "The Lover in Me," which also reached #2).  She continued to make music over the next decade and a half, releasing her final album in 2000.

The Spotify version of the album is an expanded version with seven extra tracks, including a couple additional songs and then remixes of a few songs from the album.

Favorite Song on Side 1:  "Hungry Eyes"
No relation to the Eric Carmen hit of the same name from a few years later, this "Hungry Eyes" is a fast-paced synth pop toe tapper.  Interestingly, the album has another song that shares name with an Eric Carmen hit, "All By Myself."

Favorite Song on Side 2:  "Double Standard"
The second side isn't as strong as the first, but the album ends on a positive note with "Double Standard," a catchy '80s pop song about not succumbing to double standards in relationships.