Sheena Soundtrack

[Danisa Southmayd]

Ive never seen Sheena. Or if I have, the memory of it has been obliterated by the ravages of time and lead paint chips. The movie is set in Africa - Sheena being conceived as a male version of Tarzan mixed up with snippets of H. Rider Haggard's "She Who Must Be Obeyed" - not that you could tell that from listening to the soundtrack. Except for the percussive "African Ballet" track there are none of the cultural cues we've come to expect in a modern soundtrack. And, really, it feels vaguely insulting to suggest that percussion alone is enough of a signal for the culture of the entire continent; the percussion could just as easily be a nod towards Japan's taiko drums.

Even if you've never heard of Sheena it only takes about 20 seconds of the first track to date it fairly accurately: the Chariots of Fire-style electronica says "early 80s" louder than the cover of Tanya Roberts on a zebra. Composer Richard Hartley limits his Vangelis channeling to only a few tracks: "Sheena's Theme", "End Title", and portions of "Marika and the Water Deer" and "Shaman Taught Me". The remainder of this brief disc are standard arrangements and the kind of paint-by-numbers soundtrack you'd expect a schlocky B-action movie to sport.

"Introduction / One Way Ticket" is the big, brassy introduction to wonder and tumult of Africa. "Climb! / Young Sheena" slowly builds up tension as Sheena no doubt attempts some difficult task, climbing to a crescendo she accomplishes whatever task it is that's been set her, followed by sedate strings as she inevitably contemplates her achievement, and a second mild climax as Leonardo DiCaprio holds her over the bow of the boat.

"Shaman Taught Me" is the low, introspective track with the simple melody as Sheena probably deals with a great loss, reflects upon her past, and reaffirms her resolve to beat the bad guys. "Come On Vic Casey" is the love song supported by lush strings as they ice skate in Central Park and look into one another's eyes.

The most surprising thing, other than the mere fact of this limited (and now sold-out) Varese Club release, is how little dramatic tension and action the soundtrack conveys. I gather that Sheena is something of an action movie as hired assassins try to kill Charlie's Angel and Blossom's dad. Yet none of the pieces seem to fit in to that type of movie. Instead they generally have the slow, langorous pacing I would associate with something more like Out of Africa. I suppose we have become a bit spoiled by Bruckheimer's perfectly tuned action vehicles.

Sheena Shirley Easton (ne Orr; born 27 April 1959) is a Scottish singer and actress who achieved recognition in an episode of the reality television series The Big Time: Pop Singer, which recorded her attempts to gain a record deal and her eventual signing with the EMI label. Her first two singles, "Modern Girl" and "9 to 5", both entered the top ten of the UK Singles Chart simultaneously. She became one of the most successful British female recording artists of the 1980s. Easton became the first and only recording artist in Billboard history to have a top five hit on each of Billboard's primary singles charts: "Morning Train (Nine to Five)" (Pop and Adult Contemporary), "We've Got Tonight" with Kenny Rogers (Country and Adult Contemporary) and "Sugar Walls" (R&B and Dance).

Easton's other hit singles include the James Bond theme "For Your Eyes Only", "You Could Have Been with Me", "Telefone (Long Distance Love Affair)", "Almost Over You", "Strut", "U Got the Look" and "The Arms of Orion" with Prince, "The Lover in Me" and "What Comes Naturally". She has worked with prominent singers, writers and producers, such as Prince, Christopher Neil, Kenny Rogers, David Foster, Luis Miguel, L.A. Reid, Babyface, Patrice Rushen and Nile Rodgers.

Sheena Shirley Orr was born on 27 April 1959, at Bellshill Maternity Hospital in North Lanarkshire, Scotland,[4] the youngest of six children of Annie and steel mill labourer Alex Orr. She has two brothers, Robert and Alex, and three sisters, Marilyn, Anessa, and Morag. Her earliest-known public performance as a singer was in 1964 at the age of five, when she sang "Early One Morning" for her uncle and aunt and various relatives at the couple's 25th wedding anniversary celebration.[5]

Easton's father died in 1969 and her mother had to support the family. According to Easton's website, despite her mother's heavy workload she was always available for her children: "Sheena always speaks very highly of her mum and the wonderful job she did in bringing up her and her siblings, including teaching them all to read at home before they were even enrolled in school."[5]

Easton did not consider a singing career until she saw the movie The Way We Were, with Barbra Streisand. Streisand's singing over the opening credits "overtook" the young girl and convinced her that what she wanted most was to be a singer and to have the same effect on others.[6]

Her top grades in school earned her a scholarship to attend the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow, where she trained from 1975 to 1979 as a speech and drama teacher by day, while singing with a band called "Something Else" by night at local clubs.[5] She chose to study teaching rather than performing, because it was a course of study that would let her perfect her craft as a singer.[5]

In 1979, she married Sandi Easton, the first of her four husbands. They divorced after eight months, and Sheena decided to keep the surname Easton. That year, one of her tutors coaxed her into auditioning for Esther Rantzen, producer of the BBC programme The Big Time. Rantzen was planning a documentary film to chronicle a relative unknown's rise to pop-music stardom. Easton was selected as the subject for the programme; EMI executives awarded her a contract, and Christopher Neil was assigned as her recording producer. Deke Arlon became her first manager, and Easton spent much of 1980 being followed by camera crews, who filmed her throughout the process of her audition through to making her first EMI single, "Modern Girl". In the course of the filming, she met and sang for Dorothy Squires, Dusty Springfield and Lulu, whose manager Marion Massey told her that she saw Easton as a potential TV star with her own series, but not as a pop singer for the 1980s as she lacked "rugged individuality".

The encounter with Massey (then Marion London), at which Lulu was present, was filmed and included in the broadcast, at which time Massey was not entirely incorrect, as "Modern Girl" had flopped on its release, peaking at number 56 in just three weeks on the UK Singles Chart in April 1980.[7] However, once the programme aired in August 1980, "Modern Girl" was reissued and the track and its follow up "Nine to Five" both leapt into the top 10, disproving Massey's prediction. In a revised and extended version of this episode of The Big Time, broadcast in 1981; this special concluded with news of Easton's breaking into the American market.[8]

Easton's first single, the disco-tinged soft-synth-pop tune, "Modern Girl", was released in the UK before The Big Time aired, reaching number 56. At the end of the show, Easton was still unsure of her future as a singer. The question was resolved soon after the show aired, when her second single, "9 to 5", reached number 3 on the UK Singles Chart and was certified a Gold single in 1980. "Modern Girl" re-entered the chart subsequently and climbed into the top 10, being certified a Silver single, and Easton found herself with two songs in the UK top 10 simultaneously.

"9 to 5" was Easton's first single release in the United States, although it was renamed "Morning Train (Nine To Five)" for its release in the US and Canada to avoid confusion with Dolly Parton's hit movie title song "9 to 5". "Morning Train (Nine to Five)" became Easton's first and only number 1 hit in the US and topped both the Billboard Hot 100 and Adult Contemporary charts in Billboard magazine. "Modern Girl" was released as the follow-up and peaked at number 18, and before 1981 was over she had a Top 10 hit in both the US and UK with the Academy Award-nominated James Bond movie theme "For Your Eyes Only". The song was nominated for an Academy Award and Golden Globe award in 1982 in the category "Best Music (Original Song)".[9] Easton's US success resulted in her winning the Grammy Award for "Best New Artist" for 1982.[1] Easton actually appears in the opening credits of For Your Eyes Only, performing the song; as of 2024, she remains the only Bond theme singer to be featured in this way.[10]

In January 1983, Easton duetted with Kenny Rogers and had a top 10 hit in the US with "We've Got Tonight", a cover of the Bob Seger song. The recording also earned her a number 1 single on the Country chart, and it reached the UK Top 30. Around the time of her hit record with Rogers, Easton headlined Act One, a one-hour variety special broadcast on NBC that featured Rogers and a cameo appearance by Johnny Carson. October 1983 saw the release of the album Best Kept Secret and its first single, the synthesized dance-pop tune "Telefone (Long Distance Love Affair)", became her fourth Top 10 hit. The single was Grammy-nominated for "Best Female Pop Vocal Performance" of 1983.[12] The follow-up single, "Almost Over You", reached the US Top 30 and was a number 4 AC chart hit. "Almost Over You" was very popular in Asia and was covered by Chinese singer Cass Pang. It also became a hit on the Country charts for Lila McCann in 1998.[citation needed]

In 1984, Easton recorded a Spanish-language single, "Me Gustas Tal Como Eres" ("I Like You Just the Way You Are"), a duet with Mexican star Luis Miguel. The single earned her a second Grammy, this time for Best Mexican-American Performance. The track was taken from the album Todo Me Recuerda a Ti (1984), and reissued by Capitol/EMI-Latin in 1989, which featured Spanish-language covers of seven previous Easton recordings and three new tracks.[citation needed] In the same year, she also made a transformation into a sexy dance-pop siren, changing her performance style in the process. She was rewarded with the biggest-selling US album of her career, RIAA certified gold & platinum A Private Heaven (1984), and her sixth Top 10 US single, "Strut". In the UK, however, the move was not a commercial success, as Easton would find herself shut out of the UK top 75 for the next three years.

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