Did Vanity 6 really write "Nasty Girl"?
Did Susan of Vanity 6 really write "Make-Up"?
Did Sheila E. really write "Glamorous Life"?


My point, is why did/does Prince write songs and then readily allow the Protege's in question to receive song writing credit for them?
[Edited 11/20/04 9:18am]

Averett said:

And why does he not give other people credit for songs they've written (Dez, Jesse, Morris, Wendy&Lisa, etc)?

edit: typo, grr
[Edited 11/20/04 9:27am]

Snap said:

Averett said:

He gave them credit to hide his input, to allow the record to stand or fall without his overt input.

NouveauDance said:

What about royalties though? Doesn't that complicate who gets the $$$ when the songs are played on teh radio? I'm thinking of "Glamorous Life" and "Love Bizarre" specifically.

Averett said:

You can give some credit on the record / CD sleeve but that doesn't mean that the person credited receives the $$$.

Basically, you have to look behind what's written on the liner notes to identify who holds the copyright and who receives the publishing.

As NouveauDance points out, Prince has historically made use of protegee credit to conceal his own input.

It's quite possible that on some occasions he has even gifted songs to others (including the receipt of subsequent payment) despite the fact that it was his own composition.

In general, however, Prince retains copyright and publishing rights to his own compositions (although he has quite possibly assigned some of those rights temporariily to allow monies to be collected for him.)

You can attempt to research the true songwriters, copyrightholders etc.. to the various songs using the ASCAP and Library of Congress databases (which are online). Alternatively you could purchase Uptown's, 'The Vault' which provides most if not all of the answers ... and more.

http://www.uptown.se/2004...ault.shtml

You ask specifically about 'The Glamorous Life' and 'A Love Bizarre'.

In the case of 'The Glamorous Life', Prince is registered as the song writer and his publishing company is registered as the publisher at ASCAP.

In the case of 'A Love Bizarre', Sheila E is registered as co-writer (with Prince), with her publishing company similarly registered to share publishing rights at ASCAP.
.
[Edited 11/21/04 0:52am]