Sugar Walls is the second track on Sheena Easton's fifth album A Private Heaven, and, around the time of the album's release, Sugar Walls was released as the album's third single.
In 1989, it was included as the ninth track on The Best Of Sheena Easton compilation. Also in 1989, it was included as the 18th and final track on the For Your Eyes Only: The Best Of Sheena Easton compilation. In 1993, it was included as the 13th track on The World Of Sheena Easton: The Singles Collection compilation. In 1995, it was included as the fourth track on Sheena Easton: Greatest Hits compilation.
The song is the first of many collaborations between Sheena Easton and Prince. In Mexico, the track (and the accompanying single) were titled Muros De Azucar, but the track is the same.
Sugar Walls was listed on the Parents Music Resource Center's "Filthy Fifteen" (along with Prince and the Revolution's Darling Nikki) which led to the introduction of parental advisory stickers on explicit releases.
Specific recording dates are not known, but initial tracking took place in September 1983 at Sunset Sound, Hollywood, CA, USA. An 1996 interview with Sheena Easton suggests her vocals were recorded on Super Bowl Sunday, which would place it as 22 January 1984, but this is unconfirmed.
In a 2012 interview, Sheena Easton explained how the collaboration occurred. Both Prince and Easton were working with the same engineer, David Leonard at the time. Leonard told her: "'Prince sent over a track for you. We saw you on The Tonight Show the night before and Prince said 'Ya, I gotta write something for that girl.' And so he sent over Sugar Walls, and it was one of those things where it was like, 'Here it is. If you want to do it, here's my number."
Sheena Easton adds: "Then when we worked in the studio, we got along really well. We cracked each other up, we made each other laugh."
Although Greg Mathieson is listed as the executive producer, Prince was in fact very hands-on in producing the track on the spot.
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