Romance 1600
Studio album by Sheila E.
Released	August 26, 1985 [1]
Recorded	January 4 – February 8, 1985 [2] [3]
Genre	Funk, pop, R&B
Length	38:59
Label	Paisley Park/ Warner Bros.
Producer	Sheila E. Prince
Sheila E. chronology
The Glamorous Life (1984) Romance 1600 (1985) Sheila E. (1987)

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[4]
Robert Christgau	B [5]

Romance 1600 is the second album by the singer-drummer-percussionist Sheila E. Prince contributed some backing vocals, guitar, and bass guitar, and co-wrote/co-produced " A Love Bizarre", a 12-minute epic that became a major hit in its edited radio-friendly form.^{[ citation needed]}

During her break, she received a lot of media exposure, including appearing in the film Krush Groove, in which she performed " A Love Bizarre" and " Holly Rock". She had also performed for a wide audience as an act on Prince and The Revolution's Purple Rain Tour.

The video for the album's lead single, " Sister Fate", introduced a new image of the performer: a somewhat female-Prince influenced protégée. "Sister Fate"'s B-side had the cryptic protest song "Save the People". The album itself had many tracks that were personal and which help to support the embodiment of the thematic faux-French Renaissance episodic adventure that the lead single's video and the album art intended to set up for the listening audience. ^{[ citation needed]}

Although the album received mixed reviews, "A Love Bizarre" was the album's most successful single. On January 28, 1986, the album was certified Gold by the RIAA. ^[6]

Track listing

Personnel

• Sheila E. – lead and backing vocals, percussion (all but 4), drums (1, 5, 7), Simmons SDS-V (1), strings, arranger, producer, writer
• Juan Escovedo – percussion (3)
• Eddie M. – backing vocals (3, 4); saxophone (all but 5)
• Ken Grey – Yamaha DX7 (1)
• Stef Burns (Stephan Birnbaum) (It) – electric guitar (1), 12-string acoustic guitar (8), backing vocals (3, 4)
• Prince – lead (3, 5) and backing vocals (1-3), electric guitar (2-4), Yamaha DX7 (all but 7), Oberheim OB-SX (2), Hammond organ (1, 4, 7), piano (1, 8), keyboards (3, 6), bass guitar (1, 3-5, 8), Linn LM-1 (1, 2, 5, 6), LinnDrum (3, 4), percussion (4), drums (8)
• Micheal Weaver – backing vocals (4)
• Susie Davis – backing vocals (2, 3, 6)
• Jerome Benton – backing vocals (3)
• Benny Rietveld – backing vocals (6), bass guitar (1, 7)
• John Liotine – trumpet (5)
• Steve Madaio – trumpet (5)
• Ron Jannelli – trumpet (5), trombone (5)
• Dick Hyde – trombone (5)
• Robert Martin – saxophone (5)
• Tim Misica – saxophone (5)

Charts

References