I think looking gay in '83/'84 was quite different than looking that way in '87. By that time, Rock Hudson was dead, and George Michael became hot with his tight jeans and rugged 5 o'clock shadow. The Maybelline new wave crowd was pretty much done by then. Only hard rockers got away with the makeup at the time, since the music was so heterosexually charged.

WhamBamGlamSlam said:

Maybe on the rock side, but on the R&B side, it was going on strong. El DeBarge was wearing more and more makeup. Ready For The World was wearing make-up. Michael Jackson was becoming more feminine. Rick James totally glammed out. Jermaine Stewart was going on strong. Georgio was doing it. Luther Vandross was wearing more make-up. Jesse Johnson and Andre Cymone were wearing make-up. Even rappers, like the World Class Wrecking Crew were wearing make-up.

GottaLetitgo said:

bellanoche said

First off, anyone who listens to the lyrics and has at least a grammar school education should be able to understand what this song is about and that it has NOTHING to do with being gay.

Did I get your attention with that? The song just won the awesome Sign O The Times contest and I'm messing with it. Do I just want to be trashed?

Actually, it's Friday afternoon and I am not wanting to start any new work projects so I decided I would expound upon a theory I have. I think IIWYG is a classic, like many of you, I just don't share the same passion for it that some of you have professed. As I said in my voting for Sign O The Times over Girlfriend, I appreciate the song's artistry and bravery but I do not feel it in my soul. But I believe releasing it as a single has to rank up there with one of the most misguided things Prince has ever done.

Consider this: Prince brilliantly releases Sign O The Times as the first single and the song hits Number 3. Under the Cherry Moon is forgiven and forgotten, the album is getting RAVE reviews in several periodicals. There is momentum for the project to be huge. Then the whole damn thing gets derailed. For the second single in this album deep with radio friendly product Prince releases Girlfriend. A song that only someone who truly understands Prince understands but every one else mistakes as some weird sort of gender-bending (or outright literally gay) song. The general response of the masses: What the @#%# is that?

Now hold on before you start sending the hate mail. Let me expound. First, homophobia sucks ass and people who had a problem with the song on that level are undeserving to hear Prince product anyway. But whole radio stations in my home town held this oppinion. I begged a station manager for C103 in Columbia to play the song because that was my thing...pester radio stations until they play the song because I had to hear them on the radio. (I called a radio station for three straight weeks to play Dinner with Delores and they played it once...and never again). The radio station manager said that his radio station was never going to play that "faggot shit" and that he couldn't believe Prince didn't release a better single because the title track had been huge. I tried to reason with him, explain the intricacies of the song, and he wasn't having it. They never played the song on C103. They did play it on WNOK for about two weeks and then...nothing. This experience was duplicated in many hometowns in the USA. After a tremendous first single which had moved the album to the upper part of the album chart, the second single halted at 67 on the chart and the album plummeted down the charts too.

That could have been the end of the Sign O the Times project. Would that have made it any less of an album? Hell no. But this was an album that had all the attributes of being a huge success and it was faltering because for whatever reason in God's green earth Prince releases one of his most eccentric and easily misunderstandible songs as a follow-up. You love it, I think its great, but does ANYONE think that this song should have been a single? Is this the kind of song that the masses embrace?

I hear you out there...f___k the masses, you're saying. F___k the teenage girls and the pop audience, etc. But Prince wanted this album to be a hit too! I am quite sure that 29 year old P was not thinking: "This is my big art project and if they come, they come...I am going to release art for art's sake." The man is, amongst many other things, a pop musician. He releases his product as art but also as commerce. No one makes videos and promotes singles and tours if they do not care a little bit (or a lot) about people buying the music that they are putting out. Music studios like Paisley Park are not cheap and I think the dude owns seven other houses too so someone has got to make the pennies. So Prince had to have known that he had a huge hit album on his hands and he had to have known that there were 5 or 6 singles on it that would reach the mass audience. This being the case why in the HELL did he release Girlfriend as the second single?!

Those of you who are going to throw revisionist history at me, I know the album ended up being successful. It sold around 2 million in the states, a few million worldwide. U Got the Look, the third single, hit number 2 and I could Never Take the Place reached the Top 10. The album was nominated for Best Album, all this is true. But how much BIGGER could the album have been if he had followed Sign with another commericial hit, keeping the album in the Top 20 or 30 longer than it was? It could have been the year of Prince but instead U2 grabbed a lot of the glory because they do know which singles to release from their albums. U2 has songs just as weird (and wonderful) as Girlfriend but they don't release them because they know they are not commercial. Why does Prince have such a major misconception of the marketplace?

I guess I should appreciate Prince for his bravery in releasing singles like Girlfriend becaus there certainly aren't a lot of other artists that would. But this has bothered me for years and years. I just would have been so disappointed if that album had not reached an audience and Girlfriend almost wrecked the whole damn thing. Great song, tremendous song but it's like the Debbie Downer of Prince singles. Prince has certainly released worse songs for singles, that is not my assertion. But I don't know if he has ever had worse time for a single or lost more momentum from one.

I have said my piece; I will take the slamming like a man now

Nobody mention strange relationshiop yet!!!!

I remember Eric Leeds (or it may have been Alan, I don't have the book within reach so I can't be sure) speaking of how that song killed the album's momentum in the D.M.S.R.book. He said that it was just too much product for the public to absorb and that Housequake should have been the next single. The emergence of hip-hop would have acted as a catalyst for that song. I think it was'nt so much that the song was difficult to digest (although it is quite deep in its meaning and its intention), but its timing as the second single was poor. If it had been released later, maybe after U Got The Look, it would have given the public 3 previous singles to get the vibe of the album, displaying boyh the playful and intellectual aspects of the album and would have made it possibly easier to digest.

I keep hearing how people (including Leeds) believe that Housequake should've been the second single from SOTT, but I just don't see this burning up the charts as a single either (over IIWYG). Granted, it's a funky ass song, and I love it to death (just like IIWYG), but I just don't think the public would've been able to acknowledge its funkiness or handle hearing Prince doing pseudo-rap at the time. They wouldn't have been ready for it. I sure as hell would've loved to have heard Housequake being blasted on all the radio stations, but I don't think the pop-music buying public would've necessarily "bought" it. U Got The Look would've been the more appropriate choice for the 2nd single. Now, if he was doing what he ended up doing 4 years later (which was release one song to the pop audience and another one to the R&B audience), MAYBE Housequake could've been released to R&B radio and been a little more accepted, but I even have my doubts about that.

I agree... 'If I Was Your Girlfriend' is one of my favorite Prince songs, but
it really wasn't the right choice for a second single. Personally, I think
the single release schedule for Sign O' The Times should have looked something
like this...

1 - Sign O' The Times
2 - U Got The Look
3 - Housequake
4 - If I Was Your Girlfriend
5 - I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man
6 - Adore

alexnvrmnd said:

without question,"Housequake" would have been a MASSIVE hit on the R&B charts.The song is pure funk,but it also has a rap flavor to it,making it more appealing to younger audiences.Our main local R&B radio station played that song to death in the summer of '87.I don't know how pop radio would have accepted it,though.I was slightly disappointed when this song became the B-side of "U Got The Look".It's too good to be just another B-side!

BorisFishpaw said:

that's an interesting choice of singles,but I would chosen these songs...

Sign O' The Times
Housequake---probably would have done better on the R&B charts than the pop charts,but that's okay
U Got The Look---the most commercial track on the album
I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man
It---the pop hit that never got it's chance
Adore---like "Housequake",this song probably would have done better on the R&B charts than the pop charts,but that's fine.


the song "It" is incredible.With a stunning video,that song could have been a pop smash.In one of the Prince books (I think it was DMSR),a Warner Bros. exec was saying that they simply needed more time with this album,that there are so many potential hits.This project could have lasted over a year or so,but in early 1988,Prince was already onto his next project: 'Lovesexy'.

DavidEye said:

You had me for most of your post until you got to releasing "It". It never got its chance because it didn't deserve one. This would've been an even worse choice to release than IIWYG, simply for the fact that it's just not as good as any of the singles you listed. The Ballad Of Dorothy Parker would be a wiser choice over that one. I think it's of the popular consensus that "It" is probably the weakest track on the album. It'd be the only song I wouldn't miss on SOTT, if a song HAD to be taken off. Mind you, I stil dig it a bit, but if I was forced to omit one track, "It" would be "It"/it.

DavidEye said:

Hmmmm, interesting. Here in Maryland, I really didn't hear Housequake on the R&B stations, so that's why I had my doubts. But, I did hear Adore a bit then, but def not Housequake. It would've been interesting, either way, to see what Housequake would've done on the charts if released. I still say, at the time, people wouldn't have taken to Prince and the "rap style" employed in the song like they would, say, now if he were to do another Housequake. I remember playing this song for a friend back in '96, and they sorta laughed at the song saying that was one of Prince's "lame" attempts at rapping, and this dude was more of your hardcore hip-hop fan. So, people's reactions to this song would vary greatly, I believe.

DavidEye said

the song "It" is incredible.With a stunning video,that song could have been a pop smash.

I've always said that "It" should have been the first and leading single for the album. I remember before the album came out, the press was saying that Prince had fired The Revolution and was going back to making music totally alone like the old days. After albums like "Around The World In A Day" and "Parade", a lot of people were blaming Wendy and Lisa's influence for Prince going retro. Many people were thinking with The Revolution gone, Prince was going to go back to being his old self, the "old Prince". The song "It" sounds a lot like the "old Prince" and could have fooled a lot more people into buying the album like he did with "Kiss" and the "Parade" album.

DavidEye said

I'm glad someone agrees with me

I don't know about "It" being the lead-off single (lol),but it definitely should have been released.I have an older sister who wasn't really into Prince anymore by 1987 (she had moved on to Luther,lol),but she absolutley LOVED this song.

Exactly. It has that "old Prince" sound. I know it was the first thing to catch my ear from that album. "Housequake" was the second. It wasn't the "old Prince" but it was still funky as hell.

GottaLetitgo said: