Ready For The World's Melvin Riley in "Oh Sheila"

Melvin Riley in Ready For The World's "Oh Sheila"

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Remember Ready For The World’s Prince-inspired hit?

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A fresh look at Ready For The World's 1985 hit, "Oh Sheila"
GRAMMYs
May 15, 2017 - 2:36 am
GRAMMY.com

Welcome to Forgotten Videos. For some, these videos are forgotten, for others just filed away, and for others still, a totally brand-new discovery. Whichever category you fall into, each week we'll feature a video that's possibly been collecting dust when what it really deserves is a fresh look. Or vice-versa…. We're not here to judge, we just want to take you on a little trip down memory lane. Yep, you'll remember when hair was really that big, when drums were that up front in the mix, when video was young(er) and so were you.

Ready For The World
"Oh Sheila"
1985

The comments on this song's official YouTube page probably say it all. Like this one, for example: "For those that say this song sounds nothing like Prince you are out of your minds :) This song is very Prince influenced. You don't have to be a soundalike to be influenced. It was the hot sound at the time and this isn't the only band that did it. That being said, I love it and Prince."

Yes, Ready For The World were no doubt riding the Prince wave in 1985, just like, oh, say, Roy Orbison rode the Elvis wave or Gerry And The Pacemakers rode the Beatles wave. There's nothing wrong with riding a wave when you do it well.

Ready For The World was a microcosm of '80s R&B, evidenced by the Prince-flavored semi-mechanized funk, dapper suits and Jheri curls wrapped in headbands. But here are some props for RFTW's individuality: In two years they scored three singles that hit the Top 25 on the Billboard Hot 100 without turning to Hollywood-based production Svengalis. The Michigan-bred band wrote and produced their own hits. "Oh Sheila" was the big breakthrough for the group — featuring lead singer Melvin Riley along with John Eaton, Gregory Potts, Gordon Strozier, Willie Triplett, and Gerald Valentine — rising all the way to No. 1 on the Hot 100. They followed the same year with "Digital Display" and in 1986 with the ballad "Love You Down."

The video for "Oh Sheila" is a fairly ordinary performance clip. Later, for "Digital Display," having scored a hit, RFTW was allowed to create a video with a storyline, though apparently not with an exponentially greater budget.

To add a bit more spice to the Prince comparisons, there were rumors (at least according to Wikipedia, which may have started them), that the Sheila in question was Sheila E., a former Prince flame, though Riley says the song's subject was a fictional character.

Also like Prince, who just staged a 21-night Los Angeles stand in April and May primarily at the Forum, Ready For The World is still, well, ready for the world. The band has its own label and is available for bookings at www.readyfortheworld.net. Or, you can watch their videos on your digital display.

Did you think "Oh Sheila" was a Prince song the first 438 times you heard it? Got any Forgotten Video recommendations? Leave us a comment.

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Prince

Photo: John Leyba/The Denver Post/Getty Images

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Prince's Masterpiece 'Purple Rain' | For The Record

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Revisit the magic of the legendary artist's classic album
Ana Yglesias
GRAMMYs
Sep 6, 2018 - 6:09 pm
Revisit the magic of the legendary artist's classic album.

With Prince's Purple Rain came some of his most memorable hits, his first GRAMMY wins and (of course) the classic movie.

Prince's Masterpiece 'Purple Rain': For The Record

The iconic GRAMMY-winning artist released Purple Rain, his sixth studio album, and the first one to feature his band The Revolution, on June 25, 1984. While the Prince created an astonishing amount of music in his lifetime, Purple Rain is often regarded as one of biggest classics.

Prince's fifth studio album, 1999, released in 1982, was his first Top 10 charting album, peaking at No. 9 on the Billboard 200, shooting the star into the public eye and earning him his first GRAMMY nods. Yet Purple Rain claimed his superstar status, gaining him his first No. 1 album and No. 1 songs, as well as his first three GRAMMY wins. The film, Purple Rain, released in 1984 along with the album, was Prince's acting debut and showcased him as a multi-talented star in the semi-autobiographical role.

Prince took home his first three wins at the 27th GRAMMY Awards, receiving Best Rock Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal and Best Album Of Original Score Written For A Motion Picture Or A Television Special for Purple Rain. His third win that year came for his songwriting credits for Best R&B Song, for Chaka Khan's cover of  his "I Feel You." Purple Rain also received an Oscar for Music (Best Original Song Score) in 1984 and is the third best-selling movie soundtrack of all time.

Out of its nine songs, the album had five singles, all of which charted: "When Doves Cry," "Let's Go Crazy," "Purple Rain," "I Would Die 4 U" and "Take Me With U." "When Doves Cry" was the first single released from the album, gaining Prince his first No. 1 song status, followed by the second single and No. 1 hit, "Let's Go Crazy."  The latter song, the first track on the album, sets the tone with his memorable opening words.

"Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to get through this thing called life. An electric word, 'life.' It means forever…and that's a mighty long time. But I’m here to tell you there’s something else: the afterworld. A world of never-ending happiness, you can always see the sun, day or night," he famously says.

While "I Would Die 4 U," "Take Me With U" and "Purple Rain"  didn't quite reach No. 1 status, they all spent time on the charts, with each making waves and offering the world a dynamic taste of that special Prince sound in new packages. All of the singles from the album would follow Prince throughout his life, and are often the go-to songs fans think of as their favorites.

With "Purple Rain" we saw the more melancholy side of Prince, as he sings, "I never meant to cause you any sorrow/I never meant to cause you any pain/I only wanted to one time to see you laughing/I only wanted to see you/Laughing in the purple rain."

Even after his heartbreaking passing, Prince will live on forever in our hearts, through his music, and even on the charts. Purple Rain was inducted into GRAMMY Hall of Fame in 2011, celebrating it as a "recording of lasting qualitative or historical significance." The album also made a comeback on the charts, both after the artist's death and when the album was rereleased in 2017, when it reentered the Billboard 200 at No. 4. It is safe to say there will never be another star quite like Prince.

Spike Lee

Earl Gibson III/FilmMagic

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Spike Lee Releases Music Video For Prince's "Mary Don't You Weep"

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A cultural legacy, The Purple One's treasures and classics stay fresh in 2018 with the help of the acclaimed director
Philip Merrill
GRAMMYs
Aug 22, 2018 - 5:24 pm

The incomparable Prince passed away more than two years ago but his music is demonstrating its vital power this month. On Aug. 21, Lee released an official music video for the discovered Prince rarity "Mary Don't You Weep," blending scenes and images from his BlacKkKlansman movie for a uniquely cinematic accompaniment to everything Prince still means to millions today.

This past New Music Friday on Aug. 17, the Prince 37-track compilation Anthology: 1995–2010 was released, along with a massive release of the master's past albums on streaming services. All this and Piano and a Microphone 1983 is due out on Sept. 21, of which "Mary Don't You Weep" was the first taste.

The actor who plays Klansman David Duke in Lee's film, Topher Grace expressed surprise on Twitter at appearing in a Prince music video in 2018. Many have commented that the historical events in the movie feel eerily fresh although they happened long ago. The new appreciation for Prince's body of artistic work is less mysterious, as musical classics and rarities have long proven their power to come back to life, but Prince sure feels fresh this summer. Some things change, some things are lost, but cultural treasures have a special way that they just keep growing stronger.

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Prince

Prince

Photo: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images

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Listen: Prince's 'Anthology: 1995-2010' & 22 Other Albums Released Digitally

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Over 300 songs have been added to the iconic artist's online catalog and are now available to stream and download
Ana Yglesias
GRAMMYs
Aug 20, 2018 - 3:41 pm

Over 300 songs, totaling 23 albums, have been added to Prince's digital catalog and are newly available to stream and download thanks to a recent deal between the late GRAMMY-winning artist's Estate and Sony's Legacy Recordings.

The albums, including Anthology: 1995-2010, a new 37-track compilation created by the Prince Estate, are up on all major online music providers. This makes many of the recordings available digitally for the first time.

Anthology begins with 1996's "Emancipation," from the album of the same name, which Prince referred to as his "most important record" – it was his first release following his breakup with Warner Bros. Records. Emancipation is also newly available digitally, as well as 2004's Musicology, for which Prince received five nominations and two wins at the 47th GRAMMY Awards.

The deal also gives Sony/Legacy the rights to release 12 more albums for the first time digitally, beginning in 2021. These albums, recorded by Prince from 1978-1996 while he was infamously under contract at Warner Bros., include the iconic GRAMMY nominated albums 1999 and Sign O' The Times, the latter which was inducted into the GRAMMY Hall of Fame in 2017.

A complete list of the newly released albums is available here.

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Ne-Yo

Ne-Yo

Photo: Paras Griffin/Getty Images

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Ne-Yo Gets Real On R&B, Essence Fest & More

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“I need my music to feel like something again…”
GRAMMYs
Jul 7, 2018 - 12:48 pm

It’s no secret that Ne-Yo is a maker, lover and champion of R&B music. So it comes as no surprised that the GRAMMY-winning singer/songwriter and Recording Academy member would be spotted in New Orleans at this year’s Essence Festival—the venerable celebration of Black artists and music, which is now in its 24th year.  We caught up with R&B’s gentleman to chat about the festival’s impact, his love of Erykah Badu, his musical legacy, who’s on his musical radar, and why real singing still matters.

There are so many music festivals these days, what makes Essence special for you?
Essence Festival is special because [it celebrates] black women---one of our most precious commodities. This is about them, and anything celebrating them I'm always going to be for. I've been a champion for women pretty much my whole career, my whole life. My mama wouldn't have it [any] other way, so I'm always here to celebrate female Black excellence.

Anybody you're really looking forward to seeing this year?
Erykah Badu. [I have] been a huge fan of Erykah Badu since the beginning of her career. I love how she's just unapologetically her. You know what I'm saying? She is who she is, whether it's trendy, whether you get it or not, she's like this is me, love it or leave it alone. You can't do anything but respect people like that.

R&B and rap are dominating the music charts these days, and both have become king amongst music consumers. Can you see that effect of those genres on the world of music and pop culture? 
I mean I can definitely see it. You can definitely feel it. You can feel it in every aspect of music. Have you listened to country music lately? You can definitely [hear] the influence there. Pop music [too]. I'm happy that we are in the process of swinging things back towards R&B music, with artists like H.E.R., Daniel Caesar, Ella Mai, Jorja Smith, [and me]—I've got to include myself in there. I need music to feel like something again. I feel like we're swinging back towards that. We're swinging back towards real emotion in music. You know? Real voices. Real singing and that makes me really happy.

What are you listening to right now?
I'm a really, really heavy on H.E.R. I love what she does. She works with DJ Camper, who I work with a lot as well. He actually produced [my] song, “Good Man” [the latest single and the title track off his seventh studio album]. Daniel Caesar, and I listened to Jorja Smith's album [Lost & Found] because I think it came out right around the same time mine did, so I wanted to see what the competition was sounding like. Not that there is any animosity or anything, I just wanted to [hear it]. Mind you, she's amazing. And I love Drake’s new one [Scorpion]. Love what he's sounding like.

So, if you could set up your dream collaboration with any artist or band alive right now, who would it be?
For me it would have to be Stevie Wonder. I have my five kings that have been my inspiration, pretty much, from the start of my love for music: Prince, Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, Sammy Davis Jr., [and] Marvin Gaye. Now, of the five I've named, only one is still living. That's Stevie Wonder. So, I got to get in with Stevie.

When your fans look back on you in 50 years from now what do you want them to remember about you as the artist Ne-Yo and your music?
I want them to remember that Ne-Yo wrote from the heart. Ne-Yo spoke from the heart. Whether [or not] what he was saying or doing was the most popular thing at the time or not, it was always real. And that he was a good man that could write the hell out of a song.

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