MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — Prince was prolific with his lyrics, and his songwriting started at a young age. But his songs were not always for the masses.

Before Prince was the Prince the world would come to know, he wrote a love song for a Minnesota woman he had a crush on.

“We’re looking at a song that Prince wrote for me in 1978 or 1979,” Nancy Altman said.

Nancy Altman (credit: CBS)

Altman was a receptionist at The Ad Company in Loring Park. The owner was Prince’s first manager.

“I would sit at the desk and all his little posse would come in. There was Morris Day, Dez Dickerson, Andre Cymone,” Altman said.

And that is when Prince began asking her out. He was 18, she was 22.

“He liked me, and I think he flirted with me. I would tease him, because at the time he was just an 18-year-old kid and I was 22,” Altman said. “He wasn’t a big deal. I wasn’t really interested.”

One day when she returned from lunch, the handwritten “Hello My Love” appeared on her typewriter.

(credit: CBS)

“Hello my love this is a song for you. You are my reason for singing and I just had to let you know that I think the world about cha, though I really don’t know ya, and I’d gladly give up anything just to hear you say ‘I love you,'” said Altman, reading Prince’s prose.

The Purple One signed it with a heart above the “i.”

Altman later learned of a note Prince left for his manager. It was instructions for when she first saw the song.

“It says, ‘Cassettes all set, cute huh?'” Altman said.

Prince recorded “Hello My Love,” and he left a cassette tape for her to hear it. She never did.

“I’m hoping it’s in the vault and I get to hear it,” Altman said.

Prince continued to come into the agency after leaving the love song, but Altman never went out with him, despite his repeated attempts.

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