I love the beginning of this song. I can’t tell you how many time my friends and I said the “What’s good for the goose, is good for the gander…Oh Sheila” in our totally terrible faux British accents.
“Oh Sheila” is from the 1985 self titled album by Ready for the World. The song hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was the first of two chart toppers for the band on the Billboard R&B chart (the other song was “Love You Down”).
The song is commonly mistaken as Prince, due the to similarity in sound. Not surprising, the song had some believing the tune was about Prince protégé Sheila E. Ready for the World’s Melvin Riley denied any connection with the two artists, stating that the subject of the song was a fictional character. However, the song’s backbeat was inspired by the Prince song “Lady Cab Driver.