"Strut" is a song by the Scottish singerSheena Easton for her fifth studio album,A Private Heaven (1984). It was composed by singer-songwriterCharlie Dore and her longtime songwriting partner Julian Littman.[1] Easton was sent thedemo for the song byChristopher Neil, who was Easton's first producer.[2] "Strut" was released byEMI America in August 1984 as the album'slead single and peaked that November atNo. 7 on the USBillboard Hot 100. In the UK—where the single was released in November 1984—the track became the first US top-40 single by Easton to completely miss the top 100 of theUK Singles Chart.
While Easton had achieved success with singles over her career,The Philadelphia Inquirer asserted in 1984 that "the old Sheena Easton was running into some identity problems" due to her management not knowing whether to promote her as a rock or pop artist.[3] EMI record executive Dick Williams noted Easton's concerns with being branded as amiddle of the road artist, stating, "I think she felt, as did a lot of programmers, that her image was predominantly 'pop adult' and that limited her exposure to radio and television."[4]: SE11
After the success of the top-10 single "Telefone (Long Distance Love Affair)", Easton wanted to keep exploring that genre and move away from her image as a ballad singer.[5][6] She recalled in a 1984 interview that both she and producer Greg Mathieson "wanted to keep it young, spiky and aggressive" forA Private Heaven, stating that Mathieson "fought in my corner to get me songs that normally wouldn't be sent to me, songs with a more adult lyric but a younger feel."[7]: SE9 Finding such material proved difficult; Easton noted that songs with a harder edge would be first offered to artists likePat Benatar.[8] She eventually found a suitable single in "Strut": after being sent a demo of the song by her friend and former producer,Christopher Neil. he encouraged her to take the song to Mathieson, who liked it enough to produce the track.[7]: SE8 [8]
