For You: Soft & Wet, Just as Long as We're Together, In Love
Prince: Bambi, Sexy Dancer, I Wanna Be Your Lover
Dirty Mind: When You Were Mine, Uptown, Dirty Mind

Last album...

Controversy -- "should've been singles"

1. Controversy (13 votes)
2. Let's Work (11 votes)
3. Do Me, Baby / Private Joy (6 votes)

According to you, this is the second time that Warners got it right, except for your decision to make the third single a double-sided single: "Do Me, Baby / Private Joy." What if Warner Bros had the wisdom to do the same with these two songs?

In September (US) and October (UK) of 1981, "Controversy / When You Were Mine" was released as the first single from the Controversy album. It was a hit and had a long stay on the U.S. R&B charts reaching all the way to #3 before slipping back down the chart. It reached #70 on the U.S. Pop chart. UK chart success is unknown besides the fact that "Controvery" was re-released in 1993 to promote The Hits/B-sides album. 12 years after its initial release, the song became a hit in the UK, peaking at #5 on the charts. Holland and the UK released a 12" album version of "Controversy" in 1981. Japan and Germany put "Controversy" on the B-side and made "Sexuality" the A-side. Germany released a 12" album version of "Sexuality" but did not include the extended album version of "Controversy." Village Voice magazine voted "Controversy" the #77 single of the 1980s.

The second single from the album, "Let's Work / Ronnie, Talk To Russia" also does very well on the U.S. R&B charts, hanging on for 3 months and reaching #9 (perhaps owing thanks to a successful tour with The Time). However, the single is not pop-friendly and makes no show on the Pop charts. "Let's Work" is Prince's first 12" single release in the United States, and also contains Prince's first U.S. non-album B-side, "Gotta Stop Messin' About" (a song that was released as an A-side in the UK less than a year before). Some say the 12" is rare; though, I acquired a copy very easily for less than $5 from my local used record store not too long ago.

In the spring of '82, "Do Me, Baby / Private Joy" was released only in the U.S. as the third single from the album. Did anyone notice? The single made no dent whatsoever on any chart of any kind. In fact, "Do Me, Baby" has the sad distinction of being Prince's first single ever to not even show up on the U.S. R&B chart. However, "Do Me, Baby" does not take this lying still, and the song makes a comeback a few years later when Melis'a Morgan takes her version to the #1 spot on the U.S. R&B charts! If "Private Joy" (a song where Prince first uses the Linn LM-1 drum machine) had been the A-side instead, would things have been different?

The Controversy album became Prince's third consecutive Top Ten R&B hit record in the U.S. and almost breaks the Top 20 on the Pop charts, stalling at #21. However, the album lingers on the Pop charts for more than a year, which is twice as long as its stay on the R&B charts. Perhaps a sign of things to come?

Next album...

Which songs should have been released as singles from 1999?

1. 1999
2. Little Red Corvette
3. Delirious
4. Let's Pretend We're Married
5. D.M.S.R.
6. Automatic
7. Something In The Water (Does Not Compute)
8. Free
9. Lady Cab Driver
10. All The Critics Love U In New York
11. International Lover

You may vote for songs that were already released. And you may choose "none of the above" if you'd like. Only your first three votes will be counted. I will give the Top Three picks in the next day or two, and then we'll continue to the next album.

My vote: Little Red Corvette, D.M.S.R., Something In The Water

LRC
Delirious
LCD

?.
[This message was edited Wed Feb 26 4:37:36 PST 2003 by IstenSzek]

IstenSzek said:

'Tis what I'm good at; brain melting.

Drink up!

1999
Little Red Corvette
D.M.S.R.

Tough one,

1. 1999
2. Little Red Corvette
3. Something in the water

First let me start off by saying that I think this album deserves 4 singles. WB got that one right.

These are by no means my favorites on the album but I think they make for the best singles:

1999
LRC
Delirious
D.M.S.R.

?
[This message was edited Wed Feb 26 4:39:48 PST 2003 by IstenSzek]

1999
LRC
Free

IstenSzek said:

Smokin' up, baby!

I guess I'll take that as a compliment, IstenSzek. I've been using several different sources to put these "single" posts together. Any corrections or additions are appreciated.

Anyway, my brain is melting right now at 3am as I watch Sheila E. sell hair products and talk about dandruff on an info-mercial, "The Doctor's Approach." Sheila is so sweet, but I never thought I'd see her in one of these commercials. It makes her look kinda like a cartoon -- to use her celebrity status to sell things. Hmmm. She keeps looking off to the side of the camera as she talks -- she's reading from a teleprompter like they do on Saturday Night Live. Also, they're making rough edits. I think she should stick to doing music shows if she needs extra money. She did great hosting The Best of Arsenio series on VH-1. But who knows, maybe she's doing this for a friend. As nice as she is, I wouldn't doubt it. Oh, they just showed it... proceeds from sales of "The Doctor's Approach" are being given to Sheila's Lil' Angel Bunny foundation. What's that about? Let's see. Her site says, "The Lil' Angel Bunny Foundation (LABF) is an organization committed to be a viable vehicle that will provide abused and abandoned children with exceptional care by promoting a healthy self-awareness through music, the arts, and human compassion." Cool. See, I knew it, she is nice!

dewmass, "Free"? Hmm, interesting. It would've been cool to see how that would've done as a single. I loved that song back then -- mainly because I hadn't heard much music at that point, and growing up in a rock environment, slow music was rare, so I really dug "Free."

TRON said:

Tron, I've been using the same strategy -- voting not necessarily for my favs, but for commercial chart success. However, releasing non-commercial songs that show an artist's diversity may also work toward selling the artist and album, if not the single. Hmm?

If the votes are close, I will list more than three should've-been singles (though I'm still only counting the first three votes from each person). So far, there's been a big difference in votes between the winning and losing songs, except for the tie we just had.
[This message was edited Thu Sep 26 3:27:23 PDT 2002 by Jasziah]

1999 (how could you rob the world of one of the greatest singles ever??)
DMSR (a bit of a taste of the ruder side of the ablum, but with a hell of a hook)
Free (gorgeous, completely different tempo, and a bit more 'serious')

Dang that man's talented...

The four singles should have been...

"1999"
"Little Red Corvette"
"Automatic"
"Lady Cab Driver"


It seems that Warners were more interested in releasing the more "pop" sounding songs,which explains why "Delirious" and "Let's Pretend We're Married" were the third and fourth singles.Imagine if they had released something as funky as "Lady Cab Driver" as a single!

DavidEye said:

I really like your last two choices. 1999 is prolly my fav Prince album, so I'd agree with more than half of these songs as singles. "Automatic" was my fav Prince song from '83 until '88 -- I have yet to see the video. I never understood why "Let's Pretend" was released as a single. I mean, out of everything else to choose from!!

sinaplenty said:

That's an understatement!! Regarding "1999" as a single... I loved it, but I like my choices better. And yep, DMSR has got the hook. For some reason, it took me awhile to get into that song. I guess it was very different to me at the time.

1999
Delirous
Something In The Water

"All The Critics love U in NY." (it's true!)
"Little Red Corvette" (BUT-with exceptions)
"1999" (come on...we never would have had a theme 2 party 2 on New Years Eve 1999!! )

BorisFishpaw said:

My thoughts exactly. Maybe a double a-side of DMSR / Something In The Water (Does Not Compute) - that would have been a great single.

?

:

I agree."Let's Pretend We're Married" is a great song but there are stronger songs that should have been singles.As a single,"Let's Pretend" didn't do all that well either.

Little Red Corvette
1999
D.M.S.R.

Jasziah said:

Is that a great line or what?

This album DOES deserve 4 singles, but I'll only vote for 3...

1999
Little Red Corvette
Delirious

I must say that I LOVE the fact that he released "Let's Pretend We're Married." It is the boldest song on one of his boldest albums. The fact that he got away with releasing it at all is priceless! I remember in about 1993 when I was participating in a 3 on 3 basketball tournament that drew 100,000 people to my city, they played "1999," "Little Red Corvette" and "Delirious" over the loud-speakers, which made the songs audible to virtually anyone. My bro and I were hoping they would play "Let's Pretend We're Married" as well, and they DID! We were shocked!

Supernova, yep -- a great line! That's actually the whole song summed up in one sentence, ain't it?

Moonbeam, yeah you reminded me how surprised I was that they released that song back then. Maybe that's why it didn't do too well on the charts -- a lot of stations were probably afraid of playing such a blatant song. True. But then again, "Delirious" had some obvious lyrics too, "up and down, in, out, and around..." I guess "Little Red Corvette" kinda got it going, and then each time they released the songs that you had no doubt what was being said. I didn't know what "Little Red Corvette" was about until many years later; and I couldn't understand what he was saying about Trojans. Yeah, I knew they were condoms, but I was too naive to think someone could have a Top Ten hit talking about condoms. lol.

My choices are:

1999
LRC
Automatic

Runner-up: DMSR

Great songs from a great album

Jasziah said:

I never thought about it that way, but yep!

LRC
DMSR
Automatic


1999 (the song) is overrated...





don't do THIS to the catalogue...
[This message was edited Thu Sep 26 22:33:02 PDT 2002 by CalhounSq]