Why did Vanessa Williams pass on "Eternity"? I learned from this board that she was the first artist the track was offered to and Sheena Easton was given the song after Vanessa had rejected it. This seems odd since Vanessa Williams was (at the time) an unproven recording artist without a record contract and Sheena Easton was a popular/proven recording artist.

At the time, Vanessa was trying to get past her tarnished image, of the nude photos that had popped up in Penthouse magazine. I'm sure that has much as she would have loved to work with Prince, his reputation back then, was the sexual imagery she was trying to get away from.

I could be off base, but I know she was trying to come back squeaky clean after those photos surfaced.

probably because prince placed some conditions on the collaboration like she had to sleep with him, wear skimpy cloths and speak in princebonics...

sosgemini said:

No, I think some of this had more to do with Vannessa's manager who became her husband. George Clinton had produced some songs for her and her future husband had them removed from her 1st album. The story goes that Prince had "Enternatiy removed due to the George Clinton diss.

I think her husband was just trying to get her started with a clean image and GC and Prince would not have been the direction to go in.

I don't buy the "clean" image thing because "clean" wasn't popular for female singers in the late 80's unless you were Amy Grant. And she even starred as a prostitute in the 1989 made-for-tv movie "Sex Tapes" which was during the time her debut album was on the charts.

I still don't understand why "Eternity" was rejected except for perhaps she didn't like the track or didn't think George Clinton was hip enough for her debut album. She was trying to establish herself as a legit artist and wanted to surround herself with hip producers and material. Her ex-husband/manager Ramone was responsible for the overall direction of her debut CD and helping her land a contract with Mercury Records.

Her debut single was the R&B/dance track "The Right Stuff" and the video was a good example of sexy, smart, late-80's R&B dance/pop.

Did you guys know that "Girlfriend" the hit song that Pebbles made famous was originally supposed to be for Vannessa? But L.A Reid took it back and gave it to Pebbles. There was supposed to be a lawsuit, But I don't think anything ever became of it.

ThePunisher said:

Yeah,Vanessa was really pissed about this.She said that LA and Babyface didn't even have the decency to call her and explain that they had given the song away to someone else.She had to hear about it from her manager


She eventually forgave them,and later worked with Babyface.He produced a track for one of her albums in the mid-90s.

DavidEye said:

Actually, I heard in an interview of Vanessa a long time ago, that Van had an appt with LaFace and she met this attractive young lady sitting in the waiting room for an appt also. and this young lady was gushing about her new song she was going to record... "Girlfriend". That is how Vanessa found out. It seems Pebbles, who was married with a kid scored with LA and found her career.

Very interesting!