Overnight sensations rarely happen overnight.

Sheila E. burst onto the world stage in 1984, partly because she had a hit song playing non-stop on MTV and radio, and partly because she appeared to be the latest in a long line of Prince protégés. But Sheila E. was nobody’s pop puppet. She’d been in the business for almost a decade, longer if you count that she was born into a family of professional musicians. Her godfather is Latin music legend Tito Puente!

Sheila Escovedo started her own musical career guesting as a percussionist on jazz albums (including one with her dad) before joining George Duke — the multi-instrumentalist best known for playing in Frank Zappa’s band for many years before starting his own own jazz-funk-pop collective — on a quartet of albums in the late 70’s.

You might be saying to yourself, “Okay, but I’ve never heard of this George Duke guy — how in demand could she have been?” Well, how about if we mention Lionel Ritchie, Santana, Diana Ross, Marvin Gaye, and Herbie Hancock? Sheila played on albums and concert tours with all of them in the early 80’s, but she remained in the background, a small-print name in the credits.

Then came Prince.

They actually met in 1978, but it would take another five years before the two collaborated together. For Sheila E.’s debut solo album, Prince wrote almost all of the songs by himself, and played all of the instruments (although Sheila did, of course, add extra drums to put her own stamp on the tracks). For the rest of the 80’s they would write hundreds of songs, mostly unreleased, and mostly with a more equally balanced partnership.

For “The Glamorous Life,” however, Prince brought her a completed song. It was originally intended for Appollonia, another artist who served as a vehicle for Prince’s prodigious output, but he then offered it to Sheila after the two worked together on sessions for Purple Rain. It’s difficult to hear on speakers, but if you listen with headphones you can just make out Prince’s original lead vocal which Sheila E. sings over. She also added drum parts over Prince’s rhythm track.

Released as a single in the spring of 1984, “The Glamorous Life” glittered its way into the US Top 10, marking Sheila E. as a new name to watch, even if her overnight success actually took place over many many nights. She soon became one of the most famous drummers on the planet.

So let love conquer your head … with Sheila E.