Yellow Hello

I was talking with a friend and he said he read somewhere that Prince is "credited" with "popularizing/inventing" these shortcuts (does it have a name?) like 4ever, 4get, 2gether, etc etc

Anyone knows, if it's true and the references?
Seems 2 me that U2, the band, got that going before Prince...

Thank U

I was doing this before I ever heard of Prince. Pre-1978

U2 didn't exist b4 Prince.

Around here they're called princebonics.

I think that the proper name is Rebus or some other spelling - named after some guy. Wikipedia it...

Here (I should b working...):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebus
[Edited 8/28/08 6:54am]

wasitgood4u said:

Maybe some1 should add a mention of P there...

http://en.wikipedia.org/w....931979.29

U2 formed on Sept 25 1976... Before Prince was "around" and his album "For you" is not "4 U" is it?

sillyme said:

Did u even read that? They didn't take the name U2 until some time in '78. But who care? Of course neither stole it from the other! At that stage I doubt they were aware of one another's existence!

Prince was certainly noted for doing it in the 80s, it was one of his 'things'.

It's worth noting Prince didn't start doing it until 'Jack U Off', so he must've picked it up somewhere, there's nothing new under the Sun.




.
[Edited 8/28/08 10:32am]

It's interesting that Cyndi lauper's cover appeared as "When U Were Mine" even tho the original was spelled out...

the first time he used "U" was on jack u off indeed, but the numbers were used before. 1982's "lexicon of love", ABC, had the words "4ever 2gether" written on their album sleeve, which was, i think, eventually invented by them. of course i can imagine people using this stuff b4 just 2 shorten some words, but i think this made it some kind of style in the 80s. it even changed 4 him, he used 2 write see instead of c, as he does now, even when he'd already started using numbers and all that stuff... its just some kind of trendsetting id say, but it didnt start with prince.

I believe that Prince should be credited for this briefabet.

wasitgood4u said:

Not true. Cyndi Lauper's version is credited as "When You Were Mine"
just like Prince's original.

BorisFishpaw said:

Must be my memory - I remember the sleeve notes showing it with a "U"

didn't Sly and The Family Stone do something akin to the song abbreviations?

wasitgood4u said:

Knew it- I just checked (got the LP for my bar-mitzvah ). You were right about the title, ut the lyrics all appear with "u"!

Hello 2 U 2