Robbed Hit of the Week 9/17/12 - Sheena Easton's "I Wouldn't Beg For Water"...

Sheena Easton - "I Wouldn't Beg For Water"
from the album Money, Madness, and Music (1982)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #64

This week's "robbed hit" is by Scottish singer Sheena Easton, who by the fall of 1982 had racked up five top-40 hits in the US, including the #1 "Morning Train (9 to 5)" in 1980, as well as her first two albums going gold. All hopes were up for her third effort, Madness, Money, and Music, and the album had its share of shiny pop tunes and bombastic ballads, but somehow it stiffed in most of the world, with two singles that missed the American top-40. The second, the emotional and beautiful "I Wouldn't Beg For Water", only managed to make it to #64, though it did reach the top-20 on the adult-contemporary chart (it missed out completely in Britain). I don't know how, it's one of her best songs she's ever done (my heart still beats most for "Almost Over You"), so it's my "robbed hit" of this week...

Sheena's career got back on track the following year, as she scored two top-10 hits with "Telefone (Long Distance Love Affair)" and her duet with Kenny Rogers, "We've Got Tonight".