DEBORAH ALLEN
ANTHOLOGY
Track 16
Telepathy (Single Version 3:41)
RCA 5136-7-R, March 1987
Promo-only 12 Single RCA 5964-1-RDAB:
Club Mix 7:55, LP Version 5:07,
Instrumental Version 5:07
Produced by "Joey Coco"
= PRINCE
~ Telepathy LP RCA 6239-1-R
BB rvw April 18, 1987
~ New Videoclips BB May 23, 1987

"Telepathy" Lyrics



Original title of the Telepathy LP:
You Can't Say No
RCA AFL1-5806
BB August 16, 1986
Original LP would have included
You Better Come Back To Me
RCA 5136-7-R (B), March 1987



Deborah Allen performed Telepathy on Dick Clark's American Bandstand Saturday April 25, 1987.



Los Angeles Times
March 15, 1987
By the way, Prince has yet another protege hitting the charts. Her name: Deborah Allen, who made a couple of country albums for RCA before turning to funk music. Her new album is titled "Telepathy." The title cut was written, produced and performed (except for Allen's vocal, of course) by Joey Coco, who insiders say is none other than the Purple One himself.



Rolling Stone
June 18, 1987
Random Notes
"Prince's Poppers" Article
...that's to be expected, but Deborah Allen? "I wrote a letter to Prince," says this young Nashville veteran, "and sent him a tape of my new album, I just asked him if he wanted to get involved." Prince replied with a distinctly noncountry tune called "Telepathy," which is now the title track on Deb's record. "I think it brought out a side of me that even my own songs don't," she says. Allen compositions have been recorded by such country stars as Janie Frickie, Conway Twitty, Jewel Blanch and Pebble daniel, but she sees her future in the pop charts. "I never imagined myself becoming a country singer," she says, "though it has been an enriching side road."



Newsweek
May 4, 1987
"His Royal Badness, Inc." Prince article
...under the pseudonym 'Joey Coco,' Prince has written for Kenny Rogers and country singer Deborah Allen. He's everywhere.



Billboard
April 25, 1987
Page M-16
Meet Joey Coco, who wrote and produced a 12-inch single for Deborah Allen, the country singer who is venturing into pop on RCA. Coco also wrote a song for Kenny Rogers' album last year.







-----

Joey Coco? That's Prince 's new self
By Jon Bream
Star Tribune
Mar 6, 1987

Jamie Starr vanished. Christopher Tracy died. Now meet Joey Coco, Prince's latest alter ego.

Using the pseudonym Joey Coco, Prince wrote "You're My Love" for Kenny Rogers' latest album, and he wrote and produced "Telepathy," a new 12-inch single for Deborah Allen, a former country singer making her first foray into pop.

An anxious Allen provided the tipoff that Coco is indeed Prince. She told a Nashville journalist Prince wrote and produced her first pop single. Her biggest country hit, "Baby I Lied," received some exposure on easy-listening radio stations in 1983. Before that, Allen was known for recording strange duets with the late Jim Reeves, whose ancient vocal contributions were culled from archives while Allen recorded her vocals anew.

"Telepathy" is a soft-funk number driven by synthesized horns. Musically, there are no tell-tale signs of Prince's involvement such as the ones detectable on his pseudonymous contributions to Sheena Easton's "Sugar Walls." But such lyrics as "You're a hungry wolf in a valley of lambs" in "Telepathy" might suggest Prince. Certainly, the phrasing could have been coaxed by him, especially the breathy "I want you" section and the enunciation that recalls Tina Turner's.

Rogers' "You're My Love" is bland, banal and forgettable; it's understandable why Prince or any other writer would have used a pen name. The recording was produced by Jay Graydon, best known for his work with Al Jarreau and Manhattan Transfer.

Prince first worked under a pseudonym as Jamie Starr when he produced the the early records by the Time and Sheila E. Christopher Tracy was the character he portrayed in his second film, "Under the Cherry Moon," and he used the moniker Christopher as his credit for writing the Bangles' "Manic Monday."

The contract under which Warner Bros. Records distributes Prince's Paisley Park custom label apparently forbids him from doing outside projects under his name. Hence, the Joey Coco and the publishing company, Parisongs. Both names apparently reflect Prince's fascination with France, where he filmed "Under the Cherry Moon." (Rumors abroad say he has been producing a record for Princess Stephanie of Monaco.) A band in his next film, "Dream Factory," will be called the Coco Boys, according to Deep Purple, a source within his Royal Court. In addition, it is widely assumed - though denied by his representatives - that Prince used the pseudonym Austra Chanel on the recent Paisley Park album by Madhouse, a jazz-fusion group. Think about it: Coco and Chanel as in Coco Chanel, the famous French fashion designer.

Neither the press-shy Prince nor Coco was available for comment.

With ex-Revolutionaries Wendy Melvoin and Lisa Coleman gone from Paisley Park, Prince or Coco is concentrating on other women in his Royal Court. Sheila E.'s new album hit the stores last week. Scheduled for release next month on Paisley Park Records is the debut album of Jill Jones, who appeared in Prince's "1999" video as a backup singer and in the film "Purple Rain" as a waitress; David Rivkin, Paisley Park's principal knob turner, produced that LP last year. Scheduled for release in May on Paisley Park is the debut album by Taj A Seville, who was known as Nancy Richardson when she was a disc jockey at KMOJ.

They may not be the only new women in Prince's Court. His representatives reportedly are negotiating with Bonnie Raitt, whose contract with Warner Bros. expires this month. Raitt would be the first established artist whom Prince has signed to his own label. Meanwhile, Prince's new single, "Sign o' the Times," is one of the hottest records in the country. To trumpet the release of the single last week, Warner Bros. placed ads containing the entire song lyrics in a variety of newspapers and magazines from the Village Voice in New York to the City Pages. Prince's new album is due later this month with a concert tour, possibly starting in Europe, to follow this spring.

"DEBORAH ALLEN
ANTHOLOGY
Track 16
Telepathy"

thats songs kinda hot tho.


never heard the other one

That Bream article brings back memories. "Deep Purple", and I remember those SOTT lyric posters plastered all over Minneapolis. I think that I grabbed one off a construction site wall at one point. I'll probably run across it one day.

coincedentally Telepathy just randomly came up in my playlist.....imagine...no need to it's TRUE!!!

I have that Kenny Rodgers track... it's very, very generic.

"You're my love and I love everything you do to me.
You're my love and I love when you're around.
You're my love and I'll never let you down..."

meh.

My brother had the Kenny Rodgers song - nothing special, but it does have El Debarge on backing vocals.

the boy had new tunes flowin out of every pore back in the day - '82-'88 it was like a freak of nature - yeh, the kenny rogers track is average fair. i remembr at the time P offered a track 2 dolly parton, but she passed! and thus his adventures in country music were over ! (garth brookes heaved a sigh of relief !)
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He submitted a track for his album at the time, that's different to writing a song for him. 'You're My Love' was recorded by Prince in 1982, but the released version was re-recorded by Rogers' own musicians.




[Edited 2/18/09 2:34am]

this song is alright. kinda corny, kinda catchy, with typical lyrics. too bad a prince demo isn't circulating . perhaps el debarge had performed the song first and they kept his vocals on? telepathy is okay too, i guess. i like the way she says "telepathy..." in the hook
[Edited 2/18/09 2:42am]

alexandernevermind1999 said:

They weren't over, he still had Right The Wrong in him.

Prince should release an all country album... I'd buy it.

alexandernevermind1999 said:

Was it Sugar Walls?

squirrelgrease said:

i always thought it was "VIBRATOR"... 'back massager, yeh, right !'

squirrelgrease said:

I assume it would've been "Mountains"...

stephaniebrown said:

Excellent work!

Prince doesn't have very many titty songs, does he?

jtfolden said:

It sounds like something he wrote when he was a teenager.

stephaniebrown said:

Bravo!

daPrettyman said:

Unlike the mature lyrics of Planet Earth. My, how times have changed.

vivid said:

Prince has written 100's of songs for a variety of artists,in different genres,under many pseudonyms for 3 decades.This was a research topic I had a year ago in college, and I continue to add to the list.When I feel it is complete enough, I will present my findings here.I think you will be amazed!

vivid said:

The title track "Planet Earth" is deeper than most things Prince wrote about in other decades.

jtfolden said:

As the article said: Bland and Forgettable.
I think I still have the cassette packed someplace.
[Edited 2/18/09 22:28pm]

OH and I must confess, for many many MANY years, I thought Deborah Allen was Debbie Allen. I'd never heard the song.

johnart said:

They're not the same person? Phylicia Rashad's sister? I just assumed they were one in the same.

shellyann said:

Yeah, it's not like those guys from Uptown have done this before. Sheesh, there even was such a list if the tourbook for the 1990 Nude Tour.

Oh, and I bet you'll be "amazed" when people will mock your list for including songs that weren't written by Prince and/or songs that are merely covers.

I don't believe that I have heard that song. I would like 2. Prince is a great song writer.

Tame said:

You aren't missing much