Often wondered if Prince really thought "Sexy MF", "I Hate U", "Dinner with Delores", "Betcha By Golly Wow" & "The Greatest Romance Ever Sold" were great choices for leadoff singles or was he just saying F U to record companies in his own way.

Those great songs, great choices. I don't understand your question.

Only Betcha isn't a good choice imo....

lynx said:

Often wondered if Prince really thought "Sexy MF", "I Hate U", "Dinner with Delores", "Betcha By Golly Wow" & "The Greatest Romance Ever Sold" were great choices for leadoff singles or was he just saying F U to record companies in his own way.

1. Sexy MF was a buzz creator---My Name is Prince is where Prince dropped the ball with single choice. WB wanted 7 and I think they were proven right, I love MNIP as an album track but 7 was the better single choice.
2. I Hate U started the trend of releasing ballads as first single, sold extremely well but US radio didn't embrace. I wish Gold would have been the first single released but by the time it was released the promotion for the album was nonexistent. I believe the success of TMBGITW could have influenced choosing this as first single.
3. Was there an obvious single on Chaos and Disorder? I remember my radio station playing DwD once after I begged them for two straight weeks to play it.
4. Betcha By Gollly Wow, what a wonderful cover and what a terrible way to start album promotion. Another ballad with a slightly odd video and no real connection made with the pop audience. With 36 songs the choices were unlimited but promotion was also an issue here. The 7 or 8 singles that were supposed to be released (and there were definitely 7 or 8 songs that under most circumstances could have been hits) collapsed when the recod company tanked.
5. TGRES was maybe a little too smart and complicated for the masses, really is an intricate arrangement but the pop hook wasn't there. I would have gone with something safe "So Far, So Pleased". Or "Wherever U Go, Whatever U Do" which Lenny Kravitz basically remade as "See You Again" and had a big hit.
6. Great songs and great singles are not the same thing. Prince had an incredible knack for picking singles through Diamonds and Pearls and seemed to not do as well after that (my oppinion only)

I agree "Gold" would have a been a great lead-off (assuming promotion).

The video for Betcha by Golly Wow was wretched as well, pure cheese and a major letdown for a huge release by one of ther world's well known artists.

What would have been a good lead-off single for Emancipation? I don't think there's anything obvious.

Right Back Here In Your Arms?

Get Yo Groove On?

lynx said:

Often wondered if Prince really thought "Sexy MF", "I Hate U", "Dinner with Delores", "Betcha By Golly Wow" & "The Greatest Romance Ever Sold" were great choices for leadoff singles or was he just saying F U to record companies in his own way.

For me, I don't think they were smart choices, and the failure of those albums to produce anything great on radio or the charts is proof. Let's remember that Prince led Sign O The Times with the title track, then "If I Was Your Girlfriend". While us fans love it, it was an abismal first couple of singles, and the album got a reboot with "U Got The Look".

I agree that "Sexy MF" was a buzz single. "7" was a good choice, but I als othink "The Morning Papers" should have come out sooner.

I don't think he was much into promoting Chaos and Disorder for obvious reasons, and "Dinner With Delores" was more of "who cares". The video was simple, and there wasn't a lot of promotion behind it in comparison to previous projects. Emancipation had 36 songs to choose from, and he chooses a cover song??? Horrible decisions. It tells us nothing about the album it's part of - is it a cover album, is it all ballads? A better first single would have been something like "Damned If I Do", "Get Yo Groove On", "Sleep Around", or even a reworked "We Gets Up".

I think Prince never really know how to promote a record and plan out singles. It's obvious by his choice of lead singles, and sometimes utter lack of interest in his own record (a la Sign O The Times). He barely even played songs from ATWIAD on the Hit N' Run Tour. The title track, "Pop Life", "Raspberry Beret", and maybe "America" were regulars. Maybe. He was a mad genius, who hated being put on a schedule. But sometimes, a schedule and a plan it what pays the bills.

By the way, "The Greatest Romance Ever Sold" is a horrible song, and put all nails in the coffin for Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic. "Baby Knows", "So Far, So Pleased", "Everyday Is A Winding Road" (yes, a cover, but still), or "Hot With U" would have been better lead singles. The hits were there, but Prince goes for the worst song and says "Hey look at this". (Let's not even talk about how long it took to even put a video out for that song.)

carlluv said:

Don't forget Gett off and Letitgo. Both were great leadoff singles, and both did well on the Black charts, but failed to be embraced by top 40 radio or the pop charts

To add to that, Diamonds & Pearls was such a record company album, it's not surprising that "Gett Off" was the lead single. He needed a hit, badly, at that point. "Batdance" wasn't sustaining his credibility at Warner Bros. The single was too R&B for radio anyway, and maybe even too sexual for middle America. "Letitgo", while a good song about his career, just sort of sat there. "Race" would have probably raised a few more eyebrows instead.

TrivialPursuit said:

carlluv said:

TrivialPursuit said:

To add to that, Diamonds & Pearls was such a record company album, it's not surprising that "Gett Off" was the lead single. He needed a hit, badly, at that point. "Batdance" wasn't sustaining his credibility at Warner Bros. The single was too R&B for radio anyway, and maybe even too sexual for middle America. "Letitgo", while a good song about his career, just sort of sat there. "Race" would have probably raised a few more eyebrows instead.

You're right I think Get Off was a little too R&B for pop radio, But I can't see Race as the lead single. To me it just doesn't fit pop radio format, but who's to say I know anything. Hell I thought Glam Slam would been a top ten hit

Apologies, I should have clarified my thoughts on "Race". Siskel & Ebert once said that "Prince shocks with the power of his music". I think "Race", in title alone, in the mid-90s, would have set some people straight up to listen to a song, by a black guy, called "Race". It's still an R&B song, but it also had that hip-hop and rap element in it that would have appealed to an ever growing hip-hop market. Remember, the 90s were the days of every other R&B song having a rapper on it anyway. It would have possibly filled both shoes. Plus, I think it's just a strong song.

Gett Off was a decent choice for leadoff, I was in university at the time and my non Prince fan roommate discovered it first and he loved it - almost everyone did that I knew, it was very "cool" at the time.

Sexy MF is mind boggling to me, how was that supposed to get any radio play whatsoever? "7" would have been perfect.

Letitgo was pretty much perfect, maybe WB chose it since Prince didn't seem to care about that album at all.

I Hate U I always thought was released first as a direct jab at WB.

Baby Knows or So Far So Pleased with a great video probably would have charted very well IMO as a leadoff single

Agree on Glam Slam, with the video I thought that song was going places

lynx said:

Gett Off was a decent choice for leadoff, I was in university at the time and my non Prince fan roommate discovered it first and he loved it - almost everyone did that I knew, it was very "cool" at the time.

Sexy MF is mind boggling to me, how was that supposed to get any radio play whatsoever? "7" would have been perfect.

Letitgo was pretty much perfect, maybe WB chose it since Prince didn't seem to care about that album at all.

I Hate U I always thought was released first as a direct jab at WB.

Baby Knows or So Far So Pleased with a great video probably would have charted very well IMO as a leadoff single

Agree on Glam Slam, with the video I thought that song was going places

Gett Off remains one of my all-time favourites - you're right, everyone seemed to love it, even non-Prince fans. In fact, D&P was the first Prince album I bought, purely on the back of it!

Perhaps I'm weird but I also love 'My Name is Prince' and thought it was a great single!

Also, re 'Sexy MF', I seem to recall they masked the 'F' word with one of P's inimitable squeals to ensure it got radio play.

"I Hate U" was an excellent choice for a first single.If Prince had called a cease-fire in his war with Warners and worked with them to promote it,this song would have been a hugely successful hit single.

thedance said:

Only Betcha By Golly Wow isn't a good choice imo....

I agree.Releasing a remake of an old Stylistics songs as a first single? That was a mistake.

I think "Sleep Around" would have been an excellent choice for the first single.

SoulAlive said:

thedance said:

Only Betcha By Golly Wow isn't a good choice imo....

I agree.Releasing a remake of an old Stylistics songs as a first single? That was a mistake.

I think "Sleep Around" would have been an excellent choice for the first single.

My thoughts exactly. I remember Emancipation getting major promotion on Much Music (Canada's MTV equivalent) - commercials, the video in rotation, even an episode of Egos and Icons dedicated to Prince. Emancipation was supposed to be a huge statement. Why lead with a cover? Why lead with a cover with a hook and a title using outdated, upbeat, even childish language in the era when "alternative" angst reigned? He would have been better off with "Face Down." Why make a video that won't appeal to a younger market? To me, "Sleep Around" seems like hit material, if not a statement song.

I agree with the poster above - "The Morning Papers" seems like a lead-off single, hooks you right away and the hooks keep coming. Maybe it was too obvious for Prince. The censored version of "Sexy MF" pisses me off.

I don't hear a lead-off single on TGE, "3:19" maybe. I always thought of "The Most Beautiful Girl" as the leadoff single, but wasn't the album rereleased to include the song?

"LetItGo" works for me. "Pheromone" too. The video's not his best but it's not his worst, either.

Dibblekins said:

Also, re 'Sexy MF', I seem to recall they masked the 'F' word with one of P's inimitable squeals to ensure it got radio play.

I remember that version, because it was on a "clean version" of the album that I had on a cassette-- but I hated that edit, because he was squealing every two seconds.

I agree with you about the poor choices of leadoff singles. Most were good to great songs but each albu had a more mainstream song that would have sounded great on the radio. You are also proably right about part of this reflected his disdain to the record companies. However, I also think Prince had difficulty thinking in terms of which of his songs sounded commercial or not. They were all of his babies. Even in the 1980s he made strange single choices such as If I were your Girlfriend and Mountains, great songs but not as radio friendly as some of the other options on those albums Interestingly, I Hate You was a huge hit on Urban radio (continuing the trend of Scandalous and Insatiable of huge R & B hits that weren't pop hits).

Dibblekins said:

lynx said:

Gett Off was a decent choice for leadoff, I was in university at the time and my non Prince fan roommate discovered it first and he loved it - almost everyone did that I knew, it was very "cool" at the time.

Sexy MF is mind boggling to me, how was that supposed to get any radio play whatsoever? "7" would have been perfect.

Letitgo was pretty much perfect, maybe WB chose it since Prince didn't seem to care about that album at all.

I Hate U I always thought was released first as a direct jab at WB.

Baby Knows or So Far So Pleased with a great video probably would have charted very well IMO as a leadoff single

Agree on Glam Slam, with the video I thought that song was going places

Gett Off remains one of my all-time favourites - you're right, everyone seemed to love it, even non-Prince fans. In fact, D&P was the first Prince album I bought, purely on the back of it!

Perhaps I'm weird but I also love 'My Name is Prince' and thought it was a great single!

Also, re 'Sexy MF', I seem to recall they masked the 'F' word with one of P's inimitable squeals to ensure it got radio play.

.

Gee, I must be the only one who has never liked "Gett Off"... Maybe I'll have another listen.

In fact I HATE U had a great 1st week in term of sales, but the single was released two or 3 days before the official date, so the 1st week was splitted in two. Some said it could have been #1 if this stupid move from Warner hadn't been made.

Moreover, there was no music video so it prevent its sales to get higher.

Prince, since the success of TMBGITW (which cost him 2 millions dollars in promotion), choses only lowtempo songs as a lead single, which was always a bad choice, safe from I hate U.

Lowtempo songs generally cost less in term of music video...

For EMANCIPATION, FACEDOWN would have have been a wiser choice.

NEWPOWER SOUL : SHOBIDOO was the only one to be radio friendly.

RAVEUN2 : SO FAR SO PLEASE for pop/rock radio and HOTWITU for rnb audience.

Interesting topic...

"Sexy MF" was a weird, almost nonsensical choice for a single because the profanity guaranteed it wouldn't be on radio... "7" probably should've been first. Always felt "The Continental" would've been a BANGIN' single...

For 'Come,' I think "Letitgo" was a terrific single choice - always suprised that wasn't a bigger hit. Not enough promotional muscle behind the album. Instead of following it with "Space," I always thought "Pheromone" could've been a hit.

"Eye Hate U" was his last significant chart hit, so I think it speaks for itself. Kinda always wished "We March" had also been a single...

I just about evacuated my bowels when I first heard 'Dinner With Dolores' - it was that AWESOME! Very first song I ever downloaded (took forever; and it was available officially - in fact, it might've just been a 30-second preview or something, but it was TANTALIZING). I can't even evaluate its worthiness as a leadoff single - I'm too biased because I love the song so much.

...as much as nearly lost bodily function control over "Dolores".... I had the opposite reaction upon hearing "Betcha By Golly"... Out of 36 tracks, that was the first single for what was being hyped as the most important album of his career... I wasn't familiar with the original, so I was unprepared... And the video...

"Wherever U Go, Whatever U Do" which Lenny Kravitz basically remade as "See You Again" and had a big hit.".........This 100%...thank you for saying that. I remember the shitstorm Lenny's song caused here back in the 'purple and black' days of the org..........I always thought "So Far, So Pleased" would have been a great single towards the pop and alternative rock stations. No Doubt was huge back then...I think Clive Davis' intention for "Rave" was to have every song be a hit single for different radio markets..."Gett Off" was a great kick off single, but I was kind of surprised that the rest of the "D&P" album was tame and almost mature.

SoulAlive said:

Studio version was pretty weak IMO. I remember looking at the CD in the record store and thinking Jam of the Year must be out of this world with that title! What a disappointment, even today Rosie's backups grate me...live version was pretty good. Actually, most of Emanicpations' live versions were way better than the studio.

lynx said:

Studio version was pretty weak IMO. I remember looking at the CD in the record store and thinking Jam of the Year must be out of this world with that title! What a disappointment, even today Rosie's backups grate me...live version was pretty good. Actually, most of Emanicpations' live versions were way better than the studio.

I'm glad someone said this. What ruined it, for me, was the falsetto. I don't think he should go falsetto on a jam song like that. It's why I can't stand "The Human Body" or "New World". It just doesn't work. But when he sings "Jam of the Year" in regular voice in concert, it's pretty decent. Think of half falsetto stuff like "We Gets Up", which could have been a really fun dance track, compared to something in normal voice like "Sleep Around", which is a fun dance track. Plus all that outside-the-club dialog with Rhonda, Morris & Kat is annoying as hell. It's moments like that where Emancipation comes up short. It's filler, to put the 60 minute mark. There are tag endings on every other song it seems, or things are simply stretched out for the sake of it, not because it makes sense musically. You cut down "Sleep Around", or even "JOTY" to just the song, a hook & the choruses, and they are much, much stronger.

I agree with the live versions comment, on an even larger scale. Falsetto talk aside, even a song like "Somebody's Somebody" live studio cut is 10x better than the album version. Of course, for a lot of artists, live versions come out better. I felt the same with MDNA. I wasn't a huge fan of the album, but when I saw tour video, and heard the live versions, I grew to like it much more.

TrivialPursuit said:

lynx said:

Studio version was pretty weak IMO. I remember looking at the CD in the record store and thinking Jam of the Year must be out of this world with that title! What a disappointment, even today Rosie's backups grate me...live version was pretty good. Actually, most of Emanicpations' live versions were way better than the studio.

I'm glad someone said this. What ruined it, for me, was the falsetto. I don't think he should go falsetto on a jam song like that. It's why I can't stand "The Human Body" or "New World". It just doesn't work. But when he sings "Jam of the Year" in regular voice in concert, it's pretty decent. Think of half falsetto stuff like "We Gets Up", which could have been a really fun dance track, compared to something in normal voice like "Sleep Around", which is a fun dance track. Plus all that outside-the-club dialog with Rhonda, Morris & Kat is annoying as hell. It's moments like that where Emancipation comes up short. It's filler, to put the 60 minute mark. There are tag endings on every other song it seems, or things are simply stretched out for the sake of it, not because it makes sense musically. You cut down "Sleep Around", or even "JOTY" to just the song, a hook & the choruses, and they are much, much stronger.

I agree with the live versions comment, on an even larger scale. Falsetto talk aside, even a song like "Somebody's Somebody" live studio cut is 10x better than the album version. Of course, for a lot of artists, live versions come out better. I felt the same with MDNA. I wasn't a huge fan of the album, but when I saw tour video, and heard the live versions, I grew to like it much more.

Interesting. Probably a different conversation but I'm sure lots of Prince songs sound better without the falsetto, although some hit it perfectly (Kiss comes to mind)