Steve TaylorĪ last-minute opening on a showcase in 1982 earned former youth pastor Steve Taylor a contract with Sparrow Records on the spot. 1984’s Triumph in the Air and 1985’s Grammy-nominated Don’t Hide Your Heart further negotiated with CCM’s more radio-ready preferences, but not without shifting the perceptions and expectations of women in Christian music who happened to rock. The BBC hired Sheila in 1984 to host The Rock Gospel Show which skyrocketed her career internationally, collecting mentions in publications like Time, Newsweek, and Billboard. Within months of its release, War of Love’s sales surpassed those of Future Eyes, and earned Walsh her first Grammy nomination. The album’s first single, “Mystery,” was augmented with a video that went into rotation on major outlets across the United States. Several promoters who saw her…said ‘That’s the future.’”ġ983’s War of Love, co-produced by British pop icon Cliff Richard and Craig Pruess, brought a pop gloss akin to Sheena Easton to the more eccentric edges of Walsh’s sound, resulting in a work more accessible for the American masses. “She’s one of the greatest performers to come along since I started in this industry 20 years ago. “She’s our own Pat Benatar,” Billy Ray Hearn, seemingly unphased, told the press. But that’s not me…nor is it the young people we are attracting today,” Walsh quipped.
“In America, they expected me to wear a dress and look like a refugee from Little House on the Prairie. Her 1982 Sparrow debut Future Eyes was greeted with both critical acclaim and cultural dissonance. Sheila Walshĭescribed in her first American press as “the most radical Christian female artist yet – a cross of Blondie and Kate Bush,” Sheila Walsh stunned audiences with her short haircut, spandex pants, flashy jackets, and dramatic performances augmented by dry ice and lighting.
With rock bands like Survivor and Joan Jett & The Blackhearts and New Wave acts like Soft Cell and The Human League climbing Billboard’s Hot 100, Sparrow signed three comparable artists that took the label out of their comfort zone and on the cutting edge of contemporary Christian music. But in 1982, Hearn expanded beyond the formula that had fortified the label.
0 kommentar(er)
