https://www.cherryred.co....vd-box-set

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Cherry Red is releasing a second compilation of Sheena Easton's EMI recordings. It has a bunch of previously unreleased recordings, including for some tracks Prince was involved with. There is also a DVD with promo videos.

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Here below are the relevant tracks with Prince involvement (previously unreleased tracks in bold):

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Sheena Easton: Strut - The Complete EMI Recordings Vol II, 5CD/1DVD Box Set

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DISC ONE

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A Private Heaven

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2 Sugar Walls

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DISC FOUR

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No Sound But A Heart

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1 Eternity

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Bonus Tracks

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10 Eternity (Original 7” Version)†

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13 Eternity (Original 12” Version)†

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16 Eternity (Alternate Version)†

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DISC FIVE

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The 12” Mixes

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3 Sugar Walls (Long Version)

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13 Eternity (Shep Pettibone Alt Mix)†

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DISC SIX - DVD

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The EMI Video Collection 1980-1987

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18 Sugar Walls

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24 Eternity

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† previously unreleased

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Of interest to us are the various versions of "Eternity".

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This collection doesn't include the previously released "Eternity (Shep Pettibone Mix)", "Eternity (Single Version)" and "Eternity (Dub)". Those are available on CD on "The Definitive Singles 1980 - 1987", also released by Cherry Red.

I'm not so hot about eighties remixes in general, most of the times they are shit and bring nothing to the table; I'm not referring to Prince's extended versions, which are fabulous, au contraire, he spoiled us in that sense, they're the precise reason I can't stand most of them by other artists.

Although it must been said that in Prince's case, often what we consider "Extended" versions are in fact the original versions, and that the single versions are edits.

I'm definitely cold about Pettibone, all of his Prince remixes are really bad, awfully dated ("Trust" is ugly, "Hot Thing" is devoided of all the dirt and the grit of the original, with its inane squeaky clean sound, its silly gimmicks).
Did he also commit "Glam Slam"? Man, this one takes the cake, what a turd, that stupid synth hook polluting it for a good minute. A real torture.
The guy was made for Madonna, or anything that sounds already like a product. But a musician he isn't.

I have a soft spot for the single version of "Eternity". It's in the same league of "Manic Monday", "Train", and "Love Thy Will Be Done": the FM radio production suits the songs pretty well, and the arrangements are derivative of the originals, arguably even better.

When I first heard Prince's demo of "Eternity", many years after, I thought it lacked the "papapa-pa-paaaa" of Easton's version, which is a nice, kitschy touch.

It's such a shame he became such a recluse during the nineties. I think William Orbit did a fantastic job with "The Future", taking it to a whole different place.
It would have been great to hear Massive Attack or Nellee Hopper (although he butchered "Nothing Compares 2 U", but hey, the public likes garbage) pervert a Prince tune in the same manner.

[Edited 9/5/25 19:39pm]

From the link in the OP:

"46 previously-unreleased recordings from the era"

Am I the only one surprised there are so many unreleased Sheena tracks?!

And that is on top of the 25 unreleased recordings in the first volume of this set.

I will be getting this just for the "Eternity" versions.

It's too bad this didn't go up to 1988 because I need me some "101" and ALLLLLLLL the versions of that song!!!!!!!!!

BonnieC said:

I'm not so hot about eighties remixes in general, most of the times they are shit and bring nothing to the table; I'm not referring to Prince's extended versions, which are fabulous, au contraire, he spoiled us in that sense, they're the precise reason I can't stand most of them by other artists.

Although it must been said that in Prince's case, often what we consider "Extended" versions are in fact the original versions, and that the single versions are edits.

I'm definitely cold about Pettibone, all of his Prince remixes are really bad, awfully dated ("Trust" is ugly, "Hot Thing" is devoided of all the dirt and the grit of the original, with its inane squeaky clean sound, its silly gimmicks).
Did he also commit "Glam Slam"? Man, this one takes the cake, what a turd, that stupid synth hook polluting it for a good minute. A real torture.
The guy was made for Madonna, or anything that sounds already like a product. But a musician he isn't.

I have a soft spot for the single version of "Eternity". It's in the same league of "Manic Monday", "Train", and "Love Thy Will Be Done": the FM radio production suits the songs pretty well, and the arrangements are derivative of the originals, arguably even better.

When I first heard Prince's demo of "Eternity", many years after, I thought it lacked the "papapa-pa-paaaa" of Easton's version, which is a nice, kitschy touch.

It's such a shame he became such a recluse during the nineties. I think William Orbit did a fantastic job with "The Future", taking it to a whole different place.
It would have been great to hear Massive Attack or Nellee Hopper (although he butchered "Nothing Compares 2 U", but hey, the public likes garbage) pervert a Prince tune in the same manner.

[Edited 9/5/25 19:39pm]

I like some of the Shep stuff he did on Prince but not all. The "ICNTTPOYM" previously unreleased mixes were better than "Glam Slam" for sure! To get the unreleased "S'Express "Glam Slam" mixes on a Lovesexy set makes me want someone who finally knows what they are doing on the vault now!

Shep's work on George Michael's stuff during the same era was much better than the Prince stuff. Also I agree with you as well on what Sheena added to it and I wonder if Prince did another version that we haven't heard with that, either before Sheena recorded it or after, cause knowing Prince, he most likely did record it! Salivating thinking of it now.

Darn you, Bonnie C! Darn you!

banishedones666 said:

Shep's work on George Michael's stuff during the same era was much better than the Prince stuff. Also I agree with you as well on what Sheena added to it and I wonder if Prince did another version that we haven't heard with that, either before Sheena recorded it or after, cause knowing Prince, he most likely did record it! Salivating thinking of it now.

Darn you, Bonnie C! Darn you!

Of course I'm being harsh on the guy, and to call every other pop song a "product".

I would say that at the eights of Pettibone's fame, the most successful pop songs were for the most part still on the razor's edge between crude ear-worm money-grabber, and refreshing innovation (in small measures, but still).

I would say that this phenomenon lasted up until the Aughties. Pop was a realm were the personalities of the performances, production and mixing were heralded. Your ears could immediately recognize and distinguish between Paul Young, Culture Club or Erasure (let's leave aside heavyweight champions like Elton John, Depeche Mode, etc.), while the rest of what the majors were flooding the "market" (just the term is a hint of how things were shifting) with could maybe sell, and even reach the top of the billboards, but were destined to fall in limbo and never heard of again.

Somehow craftmanship was still present, and session musicians like Greg Phillinganes, or the whole Toto crew, while certainly not as dirty and organic as how Prince envisioned pop should be, were (and some still are) fantastic talents, who could bring arrangements that elevated songs to bubble-gum perfection.

That's the reason why their work still matters today, and their influence was massive. But the Loudness Wars kinda killed the studio stars, producers and mixing engineers included; and the wide adoption of DAWs and plugins (GarageBand with its ton a pre-made loops, Native Instruments with their pre-made, ready to use sounds) set the last nails in the coffin, and standardized production for the worse.


In the nineties, and I think this was in great part due to Prince's ethos, who traumatized anyone with the will to make a dent, Europe witnessed an incredible advance in quality: Massive Attack, Aphex Twin, Björk, The Prodigy proved there was still sonic landscapes to explore, and even in the US, Beck, Jeff Buckley (even for an album) or R.E.M., among many others, proved you could be popular while still showcasing a creativity worth of the sixties.

Even less needle-pushing acts such as Alanis Morrissette or David Matthews Band could boast incredible production values and sonic ideas.


Not to say nowadays pop can't be suprising, but experienced ears can't help to contemplate how much of the current production is self-referenced, quotes previous decades, and rehashes already known sounds and ideas. Just like the movie industry, creativity and risk-taking are crushed under a neverending flow of necrophiliac nostalgia and reboots. Capitalism, who knows nothing about the creative process as it's its antithesis, has won.

Add to that the deluge of incompetent, auto-tuned garbage made by poor kids who grew without any experience of band rehearsals, or without the hard work of finding your own hardware combination and juice it until it makes you sound like no other, and you get a boring, bland slush stuck on repeat. Background noises for malls, a myriad of vertical niches, and the destruction of a common culture by the siloisation of "personalized experience" (a.k.a. tech corporate spying and tracking of your every move and choice).


Back to Pettibone, I admire what he did with "Express Yourself", and a bunch of other singles. On a good day, he could take an album track and turning it into a single sounding ten times better.

Yet, in the end, he is cleary an actor of the "industry" (hint again), working with the precise goal of making a song sound radio-friendly, or playable in disco clubs (when they were still a thing). While the list of singles he worked on is massive and impressive, there's not much that sticked to the wall.

And now time has passed, it's really difficult for me to appreciate his work: nowadays much of his remixes sound super-dated, with many sounding like ruining a perfectly fine original.

[Edited 9/13/25 17:05pm]

[Edited 9/13/25 17:06pm]

CandaceS said:

From the link in the OP:

"46 previously-unreleased recordings from the era"

Am I the only one surprised there are so many unreleased Sheena tracks?!

And that is on top of the 25 unreleased recordings in the first volume of this set.

Actually, there's a complete album which was shelved.

kitbradley said:

Im much more interested in hearing alternate versions of Chaka's cover of "Eternity". The Sheena boxset looks intriguing. I see a shelved album is being included. This is what retrspective boxsets are supossed to look like! I will definately be copping this! [Edited 9/13/25 17:32pm]

Do the Chaka alternates exist?

Thank you Bart. Nice news in this very poor year.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PrTqDHilzI&list=RD8PrTqDHilzI&start_radio=1

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Shep Pettibone Mix now on YouTube (Is this the same as the "Alt Mix" listed?)

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFm_yIG3EYg

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and Sugar Walls (Dance Mix)

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[Edited 9/16/25 21:10pm]

banishedones666 said:

kitbradley said:

Im much more interested in hearing alternate versions of Chaka's cover of "Eternity". The Sheena boxset looks intriguing. I see a shelved album is being included. This is what retrspective boxsets are supossed to look like! I will definately be copping this! [Edited 9/13/25 17:32pm]

Do the Chaka alternates exist?

I'm sure they do. Who knew alternate takes existed for Sheena's version? Often times, various takes of songs are recorded. They choose one and either toss or shelve the others. Chaka is sitting on her Warner masters. Hopefully, someone will take the intiative to release some of the unreleased material soon.

kitbradley said:

banishedones666 said:

Do the Chaka alternates exist?

I'm sure they do.

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Pure speculation. Plus who cares? Chaka's is a cover. Zero Prince involvement.

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Who knew alternate takes existed for Sheena's version?

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The versions listed above are not alternate takes, they're alternate mixes and/or edits.