I thought I read in a Prince biography that an engineer accidentally left the speed on a little to fast when Prince was doing the vocals for "If I Was Your Girlfriend" and he liked the outcome so much he left it like that and starting using this technique. Does anybody know this to be true? I honestly thought he had used this voice prior to that song.

xpertluva said:

mmhmm read that 2....as far as i kno its true...heard anythin prior to sign o the times with the camille voice?

Love or Money.... but even Erotic City to some extent.

xpertluva said:

No, this is not true.
This rumor comes from fans not understanding a particular interview with
Susan Rogers (Prince's engineer during the Revolution years). Where she talks
about accidentally recording Prince's vocals on If I Was Your Girlfriend too
loud, causing them to distort slightly. This has nothing to do with the vocals
being speeded up (which is a completely different issue, and cannot be done
'accidentally').

Prince had used speeded up vocals prior to that. There was a tiny bit on the
1999 album, but the first major use of speeded up vocals was on the Let's Go
Crazy B-Side: Erotic City in 1984.

BorisFishpaw said:

Praise be Boris, the bringer of truth and squasher of myths

BTW, I know it's on Automatic, do you hear it anywhere else on 1999?

I believe the orgin of Camille has more to do with Prince's Stevie Wonder in fluence than anything else. In the '70's Steve did a lot of vocals that were speeded up. I'm sure Prince dug not only the effect but the musical arrangements that Stevie used that voice in. After all "Jamie Starr is a thief", right? I really believe the whole Camille thing is a nod to Mr. Wonder.
Songs to reference:
Any of Stevie Wonder's work with Rufus.
and a song I can't think of the name of but the hook goes "maybe yo baby has made some other plans".. or something like that. Sorry I'm not where I can reference my Stevie Stuff. B wild.