I imagine this has probably been covered here before, but I'll be darned if I can find it.

During the Revolution era, there were a lot of songs credited to "Prince and the Revolution" composition wise. Does anyone definitively know which songs were co written/written by other members of the group vs.which ones were solely/predominantly Prince's work?

The only specific tune I've read about was Mountains. I've READ that was primarily a Wendy and Lisa tune, but don't really know too much and have always been curious.

Thanks in advance.

Do a search at ASCAP.com

Firstly, your period of enquiry to one side, the starting point is covered in the Forum FAQ at section 4.7

http://prince.org/msg/7/145050

To develop that section further, establishing true authorship in this work is not necessarily straightforward.

The obvious published sources such as liner notes are not always accurate.

For the purposes of copyright, officially-released (and in some cases, unreleased compositions and recordings) are registered at the Library of Congress.

However, the assertion of copyright can be challenged - and in some cases of "Prince" compositions, the copyright registration has been changed after initial registration. (The authorship of 'Soul Sanctuary' is an example). Equally, the actual author is always free to add other names as co-authors, or even gift entire authorship to someone else.

Similarly, for the purposes of registering for rights to collect / receive publishing mnonies, owners of such rights will register their interests with an organisation such as ASCAP.

Again, the register is subject to the same vulnerabilities as the copyright database.

Additionally, the ASCAP database also registers interests of authors whose composition's recording might have been sampled as part of someone else's recording,, even though they have no hand in the composition within which the sample has been used.

And, as with all database information, there is the possibility of inadvertent human error.

The research that has been undertaken on this is recorded or reflected in, for example, some of Uptown's publications, and this has also sought, where possible, input from those around at the time who might be able to shed further light on true authorship.

Reference to a book like Uptown's, 'The Vault' (now out of print) will shed some light. Online works-in-progress such as www.princevault.com are also likely to reflect the latest understanding of authorship for this period.

See, for example: http://www.princevault.co.../Mountains

where it notes that 'Mountains from' the Parade album was only credited to Prince on release (on the liner notes, for example)

However, authorship at both the Library of Congress and ASCAP is asserted in the names of Prince, Wendy Melvoin & Lisa Coleman. (Further research with personnel concerned has also shed fruther light on contributions to the songs composition).

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[Edited 8/31/09 10:58am]

Fenwick said:

I don't think you will be able to get an answer to this one, because of the way a lot of songs during that time (and before) were created,

Prince then jammed a lot with the band, long sessions, creating sounds melodies and tunes, trying stuff, adding to something already being formed etc etc