Sheila E.

Released: June 4, 1984

Songwriter: Prince

Producer: Prince

You don't have to send me flowers like you used to do
You don't have to buy me candy
I'll still be your fool
All I ask is for a little decency and class
Next time wipe the lipstick off your collar

You don't have to take me dancing
Our backyard will do
We don't have to eat to fancy
Hamburgers are cool

I don't care if you stay out
Until the break of dawn
Next time wipe the lipstick off your collar

Can't you understand
I want a true love man?
Can't you comprehend
I want a lover, not a friend?

I don't care for sugar-coated flattery
French kiss will suffice
Blame our sex on your run-down battery
Holding you is nice

I know when you're lying, baby
There's no need to scream
There's no need to shout

Next time wipe the lipstick off your collar
If you weren't so tired, baby
We'd be on the floor
We'd be making love right now, ooh
Next time wipe the lipstick off your collar

Sheila E., born Sheila Escovedo on December 12, 1957, is a singer, songwriter, and percussionist from Oakland, California. Her honorific title is “The Queen of Percussion”.

The daughter of a Mexican jazz percussionist and Creole/African-American factory worker, Sheila comes from a family of musical royalty – father Pete Escovedo and uncle Coke were members of the Santana band for a time. Her other uncles are Alejandro, who has had a sustained alt-punk career; Javier, who led the early punk pioneer band The Zeros; and Mario, who fronted the 90s group The Dragons and MEX, aka Mario Escovedo Xperience. Sheila’s brothers Juan and Peter Michael are also percussionists, with Peter working on The Wayne Brady Show. Sheila is the goddaughter of Tito Puente, a Latin Jazz pioneer and Spanish Harlem legend.

“Before I had language, I had rhythm,” she wrote in The Beat Of My Own Drum, a 2014 memoir. “I learned it before I learned my mother tongue.” At the age of 20, Sheila became a member of George Duke’s R&B jazz band, and worked with him from 1976 to 1980, during Duke’s early Epic/CBS years. By the age of 26, she had already worked or toured with Marvin Gaye, Herbie Hancock, Diana Ross, and family friend Lionel Richie.

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Next Time Wipe the Lipstick Off Your CollarSheila E.

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