I was listening to Sheila's third album "Shelia E" and though Prince is not listed as a writer on any of these songs, my ears tell me that he wrote some of them. I know he used several aliases back in the day, so I was wondering if that was the case here. Does anyone know which, if any, of the songs he wrote or co-wrote?

On the ASCAP writer's site I see Prince is credited for writing "Hold Me," but I did not see anything else from the album. However, there are only 637 songs credited to him over there and I know there are some missing.

Thanks for any help on this one.

i believe all the songs credited solely to sheila are actually written by prince. same with vanity, the family, etc. don't quote me on that though .

bellanoche said:

if it says "controversy music" or any of the other aliases we know he used, then it's a prince song. off the top of my head: pride and passion, boys club, koo koo, love on a blue train, one day i'm gonna make you mine.
no involvement on hold me- at least i hope not.

purplepolitician said:

I won't quote you, but that makes sense. I'm listening to it as I work and "One Day (I'm Gonna Make You Mine)," "Pride and Passion," "Koo Koo," "Boys Club," "Love on a Blue Train" are all solely credited to Sheila, but sound very Princely to me. However, "Hold Me" is credited to Sheila, Constance Guzman and Eddie Minninfield (Eddie M.).

Shortberry Strawcake is nothing but a Prince track thrown on her album

shakalakaboom said:

I actually hunted this CD down for "Hold Me." I did not see your post before I replied above, but the songs that you pointed out were all the ones I thought were Prince tunes too. Those songs are all credited to Girl Songs/Sister Fate Music, so from the "Girl Songs" publishing I would assume that Prince penned those. The others are Sister Fate/Pretty Man Music.

IAintTheOne said:

Yeah, that is my jam. It is off the Glamorous Life album. I knew that was a Prince track straight up, I didn't care who it was credited to.

Prince is all over Sheila's S/T record. I coulda swore that P took actual credit for one track, though. Prince took the photo for the Koo Koo sleeve too.

Am I correct that Prince directed the Koo Koo video as well?

squirrelgrease said:

I am listening to it now and reading the liner notes and Prince is not credited as a writer or performer on any of the songs. The only place his name is listed is where it states "Special thanx to Prince " at the end of the notes.

Side note - Does "Boys Club" remind any one of "Boys" by the Mary Jane Girls? Something about the vibe of that song conjures the MJG song.
[Edited 3/27/08 19:34pm]

squirrelgrease said:

It wouldn't surprise me. That video is a mess and seems to employ animation techniques similar to the Raspberry Beret video. The video is also notable because it is (I believe) the first appearance of Cat.

For the songs, I pulled out Per Nilson's Prince book, and it matches up to the copyright credits on the album. According to it, Prince did not have involvement with Wednesday Like a River, Hold Me, Faded Photographs, Soul Salsa, or Hon E Man.

Efan said:

The phrase Hon E Man was used in a previous song... which one? I'm drawin' a blank.

Efan said:

Thanks. So that settles it. My ears did not fail me. I wonder which "Hold Me" is credited to Prince on ASCAP. Maybe it is something that was not released or that he gave to someone else. Off topic kind of, I recently heard Howard Hewitt's version of "Allegiance" and Prince's demo was much better IMO. So maybe he has his own song called "Hold Me" out there somewhere and the identical titles are just a coincidence.

bellanoche said:

The answer to the "Hold Me" question was recently answered here by BorisFishpaw: http://prince.org/msg/7/265403

Efan said:

Thanks Efan, aren't you the well of knowledge. I appreciate it! Now my mind is at ease.

-grammar edit-
[Edited 3/28/08 10:46am]

I love Pride and the Passion.

According to The Vault book, Prince wrote/co-wrote:

Boy's Club
Koo Koo
Love On A Blue Train
One Day (I'm Gonna Make You Mine)
Pride & The Passion

just to confirm...
from Uptown #1, Prince wrote the following...

Boy's Club [with Sheila E.]
Koo Koo [with Sheila E.]
Love On A Blue Train [with Sheila E.]
One Day (I'm Gonna Make You Mine) [with Sheila E.]
Pride And The Passion [with Sheila E.]

Sheila E.: Sheila E.
1987 Paisley Park

funny enough, my two favorite songs on the album weren't written by him
[Edited 3/28/08 0:13am]

Snap said:

Same here. I love the whole album, but I think the best two tracks are Wednesday like a river and Faded Photographs.

Out of the whole session, my favourite is the Hold Me B side, The World is high.

Prince has released basically two solo tracks under Sheila's name. Shortberry Strawcake and Too Sexy.

I supposed it could be argued that A Love Bizarre is more Prince with Sheila contributing that an actual Shiela track.

This is Sheila's best album,imo.This is the album that should have made her a superstar.This should have been her 'Control'....her '1999'...her 'Off The Wall'.It's a strong,focused album.Her two previous albums had their moments,but I don't think those albums are as "tight" as the third album.There was so much hit material here! I was pissed at the lack of promotion.It was also disappointing that,when the album was released,Sheila had already put her own career on hold to play drums for Prince.While it was cool seeing her in Prince's band,it meant that she couldn't really promote her own amazing album.In 1987,she should have been on tour,playing these songs and establishing her own identity.

These should have been the singles from this album,in this order...

"Hold Me"---smart choice for the first single,and it reached the Top 10 on the R&B charts.But why wasn't there a video?

"Faded Photographs"---a strong pop/rock track with an incredibly catchy chorus.With a powerful video,the MTV crowd would have went nuts over this.

"The Pride And The Passion"---lyrically,this song is like a sequel to "The Glamorous Life".

"Love On A Blue Train"---a funky,naughty R&B jam with playful,sexy lyrics ("let me take your ticket....I'll show you where to stick it").Would have been a huge R&B hit.

Snap said:

My favorite song on the album is "Faded Photographs" which Prince had nothing to do with

SquirrelMeat said:

Same again.

I think the album benefited from not being 100% Prince.

NouveauDance said:

Exactly.The first two Sheila E. albums featured Sheila singing songs that Prince wrote,composed and produced.Some of the songs were really just Prince songs featuring Sheila E. ("A Love Bizarre",for example).On the third album,Sheila was allowed to branch out a bit and define herself,musically."Hold Me" was more soulful than anything that Prince had given her in the past.

Faded Photograph my favorite as well

Do you think the lyrics on the songs with no Prince involvement were ABOUT Prince?
I always thought that

If I ever got the chance to "write" a song "on" Shiela E, I'm pretty sure I know what her reaction would be...
"Hey, wait a second, Celestial.....
that's not a pencil!"

SquirrelMeat said:

Prince didn't make Too Sexy. Sheila wrote that with Stef Birnbaum.

Virgo said:

"The way he removes his glove, one finger at a time"--that definitely seems like something Prince would do, doesn't it?

I think so.

I have read different histories on this subject.

I thought most of the songs on Prince's early side project albums he wrote most of the music (Shiela, vanity, Appolonia, Time, Mavis Staples, etc).
Controversy, or Girl Songs, was used on publications ( i used to know this better as a teenager-yes I read ALL the liner notes, etc).

Anyway,I recall in some interview in the eighties that Prince felt it was important for an artist to create their own music and for it to say so on the record. Even if Prince wrote it, it would say Sheila E. wrote it, but it would be a Jamie Starr Production which probably meant that Prince did all the music,etc. and Sheila did her on vocal.

Who knows what really happens but Prince and the artist.

Maybe it is simple as the artist inspires the song, Prince writes it, and then that is how Prince credits the songwriting. I could imagine that, Sheila being a muse for him, she has an idea or a lyric and Prince takes that and writes a great song. Without the inspiration it would be nothing so then Sheila gets the credit for it on the record.

For all the bad stuff I have read about Prince being a control freak I also imagine Prince could be quite generous to his friends. All those songs helped so many people have a better life.

Wow, it is funny and great at the same time how different tastes run with Prince/Prince-related artist music. Some people love certain songs as much as others hate them while others are completely indifferent. That's a testament to the diversity of the music IMO.

Wednesday... and Faded Photographs were my least favorite songs on the album. I thought Faded Photographs sounded too much like a less engaging version of Pat Benatar's "Love is a Battlefield." And Wednesday did nothing for me. I really dig "Hold Me," "Pride and Passion," and "Koo Koo."

I LOVE Sheila, but I don't think any of Sheila's albums would have been huge mainstream successes. The songs lacked that mainstream pop "it factor." Glamorous Life and Love Bizarre were the best poised to crossover, which is why they remain her biggest hits. I think it was a great move for her to be Prince's drummer because it garnered more attention for her true talent and helped her further move from beneath the cloak of just being another "Prince girl." Prince spotlighted her a lot during the tours and folks got to see how badass she is on the skins. She would not have sold out arenas on her own so that tour exposed her to a much larger audience. I might be biased though because the Cat/Sheila/Prince dynamic of the SOTT/LoveSexy tours was off the chain to me. I LOVED them all together on those tours.

I remember buying this album when it came out. "Wednesday Like A River"
was one of my immediate favorite tracks on the album, and it also seemed
one of the most 'Princey' tracks on the album. So it was quite a surprise
when I found out it was one of the tracks not written by him.

Here's a rundown of who wrote what on the "Sheila E." album...
(Prince written songs highlighted in purple)

Sheila E. - Sheila E.
1. One Day (I’m Gonna Make You Mine) (Prince)
2. Wednesday Like A River (Sheila E. / Levi Seacer Jr. / Constance Guzman)
3. Hold Me (Sheila E. / Constance Guzman / Eddie M.)
4. Faded Photographs (Sheila E. / Constance Guzman / Samuel Domingo / Boni Boyer)
5. Koo Koo (Prince)
6. Pride And The Passion (Prince)
7. Boys Club (Prince)
8. Soul Salsa (Sheila E. / Levi Seacer Jr. / Norbert Stachel)
9. Hon E Man (Sheila E. / Levi Seacer Jr. / Constance Guzman)
10. Love On A Blue Train (Prince)

BorisFishpaw said:

Thanks for all the replies. For all the cattiness and bickering that keeps me away from this site for periods of time, it is threads like this one that always bring me back to it. You guys are an excellent resource.