Sheila And Kings And Queens Aerosmith

Sheila Album: Done with Mirrors (1985)
Kings And Queens Album: Draw The Line (1977)
by Aerosmith

"Sheila" is the fifth song on the band's 1985 album Done with Mirrors. The songwriting credits are credited to all members of Aerosmith. Both guitarists Joe Perry and Brad Whitford take turns in soloing, with the main riff played by Brad Whitford.

Although "Let the Music Do the Talking" was the first track from the album to be released to United States radio stations (as a promo-only single), "Shela" was the album's first commercially released single in the US, reaching #20 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock Tracks chart in late-1985.

Despite the song being released as a single in the US, a music video was not created for it.

"Kings and Queens" is a song by American hard rock band Aerosmith. It was written by Steven Tyler, Brad Whitford, Tom Hamilton, Joey Kramer, and Jack Douglas, their producer, who helped the band write many of the songs on Draw the Line. Douglas also played the mandolin featured in the song.

Steven Tyler said of "Kings and Queens" in the liner notes to Pandora's Box:
"This one was just about how many people died from holy wars because of their beliefs or non-beliefs. With that one, my brain was back with the knights of the round table..."

The band was heavy into drugs and rather dysfunctional when they recorded the Draw The Line album with producer Jack Douglas, who managed to pull the thing together. A byproduct of this dysfunction was more input from guitarist Brad Whitford, bass player Tom Hamilton, and drummer Joey Kramer, since Steven Tyler and Joe Perry were less of a presence.

Whitford, Hamilton and Kramer wrote the music for this track with Douglas, and Tyler added the lyrics later on - it's one of the few Aerosmith songs written while Joe Perry was in the band with no input from the guitarist. In our interview with Brad Whitford, he explained: "It probably would have ended up sounding different if they [Tyler and Perry] were there, but we were able to stretch out a little bit and hit a chord with that tune. We had the basis of it, and when Steven heard it, it really appealed to him and he came up with those great lyrics. It was just one of those things."

Kings And Queens was released as the second single (following the title track) from the band's fifth album Draw The Line.

According to Brad Whitford, this was one of the hardest Aerosmith songs to adapt for live performance. The band doesn't play it very often, but will occasionally surprise fans by getting it out of the attic.

The song was a staple of Aerosmith concerts in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and was included on the album Classics Live!. This version was also included on Pandora's Box. The band brought the song back into the set list during shows in Providence, Rhode Island and Anaheim, California in 2005 and 2006 on the Rockin' the Joint Tour, and in São Paulo, Brazil and Sölvesborg, Sweden in 2010 on the Cocked, Locked, Ready to Rock Tour. It was played during the 2014 Jones Beach show. The band usually performs Draw the Line's other single, the title track, which has become a live staple as of late.

The song was included on the albums Aerosmith's Greatest Hits in 1980 and Greatest Hits 1973–1988 in 2004, but was considerably edited, with many of the guitar parts removed. This edited version is sometimes heard on radio, although many rock stations do play the full version.

"Kings and Queens" is a master track in the game Guitar Hero: Aerosmith and is unlocked upon beating the last song, "Train Kept A-Rollin".

Glenn Hughes recorded a version of the song in 2011.