You all know the story about the opening lines of "1999"... Prince records the melody in three-part harmony, but later decides to split up the tracks and introduce the voices one by one - Lisa, Dez, and then finally himself.

I don't know if this has been mentioned before, but I just realized where he might have gotten the idea from:

"You Are The Sunshine Of My Life", the opening track of Stevie Wonder's "Talking Book" album (1972). The first two lines are sung by background vocalists Jim Gilstrap and Lani Groves, before Stevie himself enters.

A rather obvious influence, don't you think?

yes,for some reason i always thought on 1999 when i listened to that stevie jam

I tried listening to 1999 in braille once.

It was horrible.

That's Lisa on "1999"

Don't shoot me

theodore said:

I believe it was Lisa and Jill Jones together. I don't have the credits in front of me to confirm though.

RealMusician said:

that and "Dance To the Music", "Hey Music Lover" etc by Sly

daPrettyman said:

Jill Jones is

RealMusician said:

Yeah, I've always thought that, too. Especially Jim's voice and Dez's. Similar vibe. I think P dug how Stevie's voice jumped out at u so much when he started singing, having heard the other two vocalists. Plus, it kinda through folks off NOT hearing Stevie singing the first lines of his OWN song.

interesting

LittleSmedley said:

more of a nod to Sly, Larry, Cynthia, et al than anything else, I'd say

guess what, he was also inspired by people breathing on tracks and opening their mouths to sing.....

alphastreet said:

and you were inspired by this very thread to post a reply

Snap said:

yeah I was tempted to reply cause it's typical diehard behaviour