thanks 4 the spelling lookout, can u tell me all the songs that were ghostwritten 4 Prince.

thanks 4 the spelling lookout, can u tell me all the songs that were ghostwritten 4 Prince.

mike123 said:

Manic Monday is ghostwritten by Prince... so are the Time's songs...

ufoclub said:

No, he said what were written FOR Prince, not BY Prince, as in someone writing a song for Prince to claim as his own. You know....like Beyonce's whole career.

ufoclub said:

No, he said what were written FOR Prince, not BY Prince, as in someone writing a song for Prince to claim as his own. You know....like Beyonce's whole career.

HIDE THE BONE isnt by Prince right? I love u but dont trust u and Soul Sanctuary are a few others.

What about all of the credits he gave away on The Time, Sheila E, etc albums?

The albums that have entire bands on the instruments in the credits, but R all P.

The few little stray incidents that R known represent nothing in comparison 2 the volume of his choices 2 credit someone else.

Even with some significant albums of his own, he has credited his band members, where he was playing/recording most or all parts.

But U ask about athoring, so... 2 answer your question specifically... I would estimate that anywhere from 99%-100% of Prince's material is Prince authored.


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[Edited 4/1/10 14:34pm]

ernestsewell said:

In that case... well... nothing. He has had collaborators and has done covers. But no one has produced a Prince track for him.
Wait... I know one....

Kiss.

What about all of the credits he gave away on The Time, Sheila E, etc albums?

The albums that have entire bands on the instruments in the credits, but R all P.

The few little stray incidents that R known represent nothing in comparison 2 the volume of his choices 2 credit someone else.

Even with some significant albums of his own, he has credited his band members, where he was playing/recording most or all parts.

But U ask about athoring, so... 2 answer your question specifically... I would estimate that anywhere from 99%-100% of Prince's material is Prince authored.


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[Edited 4/1/10 14:34pm]

In the case of Do Me Baby, if princevault.com is correct, it was written by André Cymone but credited to Prince. Question is, why would Cymone agree to that?

One song? seriously?

dance4me3121 said:

No.

Kiss
Partyup
Do Me, Baby

Although they weren't "ghost written" or that he stole them, but Prince has done a lot of covers on record:
Betcha By Golly Wow
I Can't Make You Love Me
La La Means I Love You
A Case Of U

mike123 said:

Ghost written? None.

Stolen by him? Plenty.

Prince indeed used an André Cymone composition, which itself was more or less stolen from a Eddie Hazel song, for "Do Me, Baby". He also took away Jesse Johnson's royalties out of "The Bird" and "Jungle Love" (though Prince didn't credit himself for them on the record's credits) and a few Chris Moon lyrics also were uncredited. Jesse stole the arrangements Prince had done on "Do Yourself A Favor" in retaliation (and got co-writers royalties for them), and Chris stole "Make It Through The Storm" for Sue-Ann in retaliation, too (which led Prince to copyright the song, most likely after Sue Ann released it).

Kiss was arranged, not composed, by David Z and Mazarati, and David Z was credited for that on "Parade": i know Mazarati were a bit pissed off that they got no writing credits for that arrangement, but David Z said that he was totally satisfied with this because he owed his whole career to Prince. On the other hand Prince wrote the lyrics for 2 Mazarati songs but since Brownmark was writing the whole album, Mark got the credits and royalties for that

As for "Partyup" it wasn't "stolen" to Morris but traded against being The Time's singer (Morris was supposed to be the drummer at this stage) so Morris was totally ok with that, and Prince is said to have changed the lyrics quite a lot so he could be considered co-writer anyway.

There might be a few other doubtful songs here and there ("Well Done" comes to mind) but it's totally insane how a man who composed, arranged and recorded more than 1000 songs is accused of being "ghostwritten" or to have an habit of stealing ideas where there actually are less than 10 known dubious cases.

And that's without mentionning the credits and royalties Prince offered to Sheila for the whole "Romance 1600" album, the credits and royalties he possibly gave to his father who is said not to ever have written a line on any Prince songs, and the multiple cases where Prince gave credits for composing, playing instruments and arranging songs to other people (Madhouse, The Family, The Time, Vanity 6, Apollonia 6, Sheila E., Jill Jones, Taja Sevelle...), not to mention the times he hid behind pseudonyms.

Besides, anyone who's been involved in collaborative works of art know that it's quite difficult to isolate who did what after some time. This debate, which is regularly re-opened here, is a bit ridiculous.

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[Edited 4/2/10 8:43am]

databank said:

Indeed. When put in context as you did so well in your post, any lapses in credit appear to be minimal and random; not the doings of a plagiarist.

databank said:

Indeed. When put in context as you did so well in your post, any lapses in credit appear to be minimal and random; not the doings of a plagiarist.

I'm not sure that the Kiss demo we know was all that Prince did before he gave it to david z - he may have worked up a fuller verion with more lyrics - the lyrics have never been in contention, so there must be a 'missing link' version that hasn't surfaced.


.....

lotusflw3r said:

That little demo of "Kiss" didn't have all the lyrics, IIRC. Although I could be wrong on that. It was pretty sparse and only 2 minutes long or so. David Z added A LOT to that song, for sure.

The only "missing link" is probably the Mazarati version out there. It was really the Prince demo on guitar, Mazarati's version, then Prince's overdubbed version. That's all that exists really (sans the 12" version).