Sheena Easton

  Artist: Sheena Easton

LP: 7" single

Song: "Modern Girl"

[ listen ] 

 

Happy International Women's Day! Sorry I'm so late with this...it's all my fault, due entirely to procrastination, and should not be seen as a reflection on women or on my attitude toward them. I love women!...ironically? 

 

My ulterior motive though for posting "Modern Girl" by Sheena Easton (it peaked at #18 in 1981) is this: There needs to be a record of the fact that Sheena Easton exists! I'd like to formally proclaim that Sheena Easton is one of the cornerstones of any playlist employing the title, "The Ladies of the '80s." Sheena had eight songs that hit the top ten between 1981 and 1989, and 15 hits in that period that made it into the top 40. I don't know why, but for some reason Sheena Easton is being erased (canceled?) from the American musical history books' chapter on the 1980s! 

 

First of all, when I'm at my fellow's place and I instruct Alexia (politely!) to "Alexia, please play Sheena Easton." She says she cannot (my guy's not a paying subscriber...even though it's only $2.99 a month and the first 30 days are free. You can cancel anytime!), but she says she is willing to play music for me that's similar to Sheena Easton. I sigh and say "okay," and then on pops some song by Billy Joel. Or Kenny Rogers. We've listened for hours after making this particular request, and Alexia just will not let us listen to Sheena Easton! But not only that...

 

All day while I'm working I often used to listen to Seattle's 95.7 FM (The Jet), which claims to play "the best variety of the '80s and more" (or something like that). But they DON'T, I tell you! I swear they bought about a dozen "Hits of the '80s" K-TEL records from one of those ads on TV, and they simply play tracks from that limited set over and over (and over and over and over and over) again (and again and again). I ask you: Is there any reason for any radio station in the year 2021 to play Cyndi Lauper's "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" four times within a 24-hour period? If I hear that song one more time while I'm working I'm gonna She-Bop somebody in the nose!

 

(You know, pretty regularly on The Jet they play an ad where a kindly elderly gentleman says he understands our suffering and unhappiness, and then he invites us to pray with him and to accept Jesus Christ as our savior. I have no evidence, of course, but I'm starting to wonder if maybe The Jet is actually run by a group of religious conservatives who have never been able to forgive Sheena Easton for that one time when she invited everyone to come spend the night inside her "Sugar Walls" [peaked at #9 in 1984]. This could be the reason she has been permanently banned from their airwaves!)

 

In any case, I've had to step away (dial away? 'seek' away?) from 95.7 The Jet because I really was getting just a little too irritated. Within the past few months, I have actually written two lengthy emails to the station's program team (anyone who knows me will not be surprised by this) thanking them for all the wonderful music, and also suggesting a large number of terrific '80s hits for their playlist that I haven't ever heard on their '80s music station over the past year. (Figuring they were overwhelmed by my lengthy first list, I limited my requests to a dozen top favorites in my email number two.) I checked the box to request a response when I sent my emails, but I received "No Reply at All," to quote another '80s hit that they've never played.

 

Then last week on the station they claimed to be celebrating the ladies of the '80s for International Women's Day! ...but then they just played the exact same K-TEL tracks that they've been playing all year long. (Admittedly, I did turn the volume up to the highest acceptable level (and once, even up to an unacceptable level) each and every time they played their limited roster of hits by Pat Benatar, Blondie, and Madonna.) 

 

Opting for another approach, I visited The Jet's Facebook page and found a post in which one of the DJs mentioned that the station was celebrating the music of the women of the '80s. I posted a comment kindly mentioning that I had hoped that this week they would be playing some of the '80s ladies, and '80s-ladies-led groups, that get no airplay on their station the rest of the year: Juice Newton, The Motels, Olivia Newton-John (aside from that one bouncy duet from GREASE), Lone Justice, Shannon, Sheila E., Janet Jackson, and of course, Sheena Easton. 

 

No luck. So, like I said, I finally had to step away before I went too far and ended up as a report on the evening news about domestic terrorism: "A Seattle mail-carrier was arrested late last night after reportedly going postal and making violent threats to a local '80s radio station and its DJs for not adding Juice Newton's "Queen of Hearts" to its 'Ladies of the '80s' playlist. More at 11."

 

[ Sheena Easton ]