Ginuwine's cover of "When Doves Cry" might be the worst ever cover of a Prince track. (And I dig a lot of the Ginuwine's tracks produced by Timbo.)

Didn't Prince have final say over whether or not to allow it to be covered? I was under the impression that he listened to said covers and said yes or no.

Did Timbaland ever say how this came to be, what Prince's reaction to the debacle was? Just can't figure out how it came to be.

suomynona said:

Ginuwine's cover of "When Doves Cry" might be the worst ever cover of a Prince track. (And I dig a lot of the Ginuwine's tracks produced by Timbo.)

Didn't Prince have final say over whether or not to allow it to be covered? I was under the impression that he listened to said covers and said yes or no.

Did Timbaland ever say how this came to be, what Prince's reaction to the debacle was? Just can't figure out how it came to be.

I didn't really like Ginuwine's version (or his cover version of MJ's She's Out of My Life). It was like However, I did like Quindon Tarver's version from the Romeo + Juliet (1996) soundtrack and film.

suomynona said:

Ginuwine's cover of "When Doves Cry" might be the worst ever cover of a Prince track. (And I dig a lot of the Ginuwine's tracks produced by Timbo.)

Didn't Prince have final say over whether or not to allow it to be covered? I was under the impression that he listened to said covers and said yes or no.

Did Timbaland ever say how this came to be, what Prince's reaction to the debacle was? Just can't figure out how it came to be.

I had read that Prince did not like it at all....was done without asking him.....from what I read at the time Prince approached him direct in a club giving him a verbal going over.

I remember that awful video and laughing at what a narcissist Ginuwine was in the song.

alphastreet said:

I remember that awful video and laughing at what a narcissist Ginuwine was in the song.

Well, maybe that's why Prince agreed to it.

He sounded pretty chillaxed about it on Undisputed Moneyappolis mix:

"Is that my song playing on the radio? It could be G, I can't remember, I wrote it in '84

Y'all keep groovin', you know I got nothin' but love to show

Keep it, like Clarence said, I got a million of 'em - all different y'know!"

[Edited 5/25/16 0:08am]

suomynona said:

Ginuwine's cover of "When Doves Cry" might be the worst ever cover of a Prince track. (And I dig a lot of the Ginuwine's tracks produced by Timbo.)

Didn't Prince have final say over whether or not to allow it to be covered? I was under the impression that he listened to said covers and said yes or no.

Did Timbaland ever say how this came to be, what Prince's reaction to the debacle was? Just can't figure out how it came to be.

There's a thing called Compulsory License. It states that any individual or any company can look to use another individual or company's intellectual property, without direct permission of the right's holder (the creator), as long as they pay a preset fee for the license to do so.

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So artists like Ginuwine can pay the fee to cover "When Doves Cry" which could be $1000 or $10,000 - whatever it's set at, and cover it without Prince's direct permission. Prince gets paid, and it's kind of a "here's your money, so shut up" feel to the license, IMO. That's why there are so many shitty versions of Prince songs out there.

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Prince spoke out a lot on compulsory license. (I remember him doing so on George Lopez's show, as an example.) Prince had stated more than once that he didnt like Ginuwine's version, mostly because he changed the lyrics, and basically shit on it. Prince obviously understood people's love of his music, and the desire to be part of it. He talked about that to Mel B., and that he didn't mind people doing it if their heart was true. But it's when they come along and just "want a piece of the purple pie" that he had a problem with it (a la Ginuwine).

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There's one compilation that had Rebecca Stamos singing "Darling Nikki". I mean - WTF. That whole CD was a piece of shit.

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[Edited 5/25/16 0:26am]

Thanks!

I don't know which one was worse..the cover or the video.

suomynona said:

He couldn't have liked Ginuwine's version lol Did anybody? Ughh awful