Anyone ever noticed that Let's Have A Baby is definitely inspired by Billy Paul's 1975 song Let's Make A Baby? It's definitely similar in theme and title, which Prince probably knew about since he just changed the one word.

I love the P song... he was seducing Mayte with this song.. wow...


who is Billy Paul, sorry never heard about this artist...

thedance said:

I love the P song... he was seducing Mayte with this song.. wow...


who is Billy Paul, sorry never heard about this artist...

Billy Paul had a huge number one pop and R&B single in the US at the beginning of 1973 with "Me And Mrs. Jones".

[Edited 1/26/18 22:12pm]

^ oh, then I know him very well, that song is a classic..

Conceptually, of course, it's true that Prince is influenced by this song. Although, it sounds nothing like it. And Prince make it Prince. Actually, for me this is one of his finest vocals. Fans should recognize this song more. The vocal is top notch...he let's you hear the breaths inbetween. One of the best. In a 100 yrs team time, people will realize this.

there is also a song called "We are having a baby" sung by Desi Arnez on I love Lucy...and "having my baby" by Paul Anka. A song about having babies (one of the most important events in anyone's life--imagine writing a song about that. Its not an original concept, just a personal one.

There is also a song called "the Most beautiful girl in the world" sung by Frank Sinatra and written by Rogers and Hart in 1935. Take away Prince's grammies and acclaim and call him a hack.

[Edited 1/26/18 23:02pm]

thedance said:

I love the P song... he was seducing Mayte with this song.. wow...

Mayte:

"We didn't speak about it (having children) until he played "Let's Have A Baby"..."


Taken from this interview video:



^ from, The Wall Street Journal 21-april-2017

thedance said:

thedance said:

I love the P song... he was seducing Mayte with this song.. wow...

Mayte:

"We didn't speak about it (having children) until he played "Let's Have A Baby"..."


Taken from this interview video:



^ from, The Wall Street Journal 21-april-2017

Thank u for sharing the video...I must have missed it when it came out... very touching (u can can feel the love, and the grief...)

Musician9 said:

Anyone ever noticed that Let's Have A Baby is definitely inspired by Billy Paul's 1975 song Let's Make A Baby? It's definitely similar in theme and title, which Prince probably knew about since he just changed the one word.

Probably, but unlikely. You forget who you're talking about. Prince was madly in love with Mayte, and just about everything he did revolved around her. He unloaded thirty-six+ tracks for Emancipation. The last thing on his mind was some old ass Billy Paul song. Hell, there are songs called "Baby", "I'm Yours", "Automatic", "With You", etc. Doesn't mean Prince was probably thinking about those, either.

All that aside, it's a clever find on your part. As far as Prince being influenced by the Paul song, nah. He was influenced by pussy.

TrivialPursuit said:

Musician9 said:

Anyone ever noticed that Let's Have A Baby is definitely inspired by Billy Paul's 1975 song Let's Make A Baby? It's definitely similar in theme and title, which Prince probably knew about since he just changed the one word.

Probably, but unlikely. You forget who you're talking about. Prince was madly in love with Mayte, and just about everything he did revolved around her. He unloaded thirty-six+ tracks for Emancipation. The last thing on his mind was some old ass Billy Paul song. Hell, there are songs called "Baby", "I'm Yours", "Automatic", "With You", etc. Doesn't mean Prince was probably thinking about those, either.

All that aside, it's a clever find on your part. As far as Prince being influenced by the Paul song, nah. He was influenced by pussy.

Yes. That's right, because you were there.

pricetag said:

TrivialPursuit said:

Probably, but unlikely. You forget who you're talking about. Prince was madly in love with Mayte, and just about everything he did revolved around her. He unloaded thirty-six+ tracks for Emancipation. The last thing on his mind was some old ass Billy Paul song. Hell, there are songs called "Baby", "I'm Yours", "Automatic", "With You", etc. Doesn't mean Prince was probably thinking about those, either.

All that aside, it's a clever find on your part. As far as Prince being influenced by the Paul song, nah. He was influenced by pussy.

Yes. That's right, because you were there.

I never said that. I listened to what he said. No assumptions there.

Musician9 said:

TrivialPursuit said:

Musician9 said:

Anyone ever noticed that Let's Have A Baby is definitely inspired by Billy Paul's 1975 song Let's Make A Baby? It's definitely similar in theme and title, which Prince probably knew about since he just changed the one word.

Probably, but unlikely. You forget who you're talking about. Prince was madly in love with Mayte, and just about everything he did revolved around her. He unloaded thirty-six+ tracks for Emancipation. The last thing on his mind was some old ass Billy Paul song. Hell, there are songs called "Baby", "I'm Yours", "Automatic", "With You", etc. Doesn't mean Prince was probably thinking about those, either.

All that aside, it's a clever find on your part. As far as Prince being influenced by the Paul song, nah. He was influenced by pussy.

clever perhaps, it's just that I listen to a vast amount of music by diverse artists and thus I'm able to see when song titles and concepts are borrowed, for example Prince took the title Shhh from a Miles Davis song on In a Silent Way, even spells it the same, or when he took the tittle Sugar Walls from a Hendrix line in Long Hot Summer Night. Anyway, my point is that if another artist did this from a Prince tune you all would scream bloody murder and theft, but when your idol does it, and he did it often, you call it clever and creative, or that he somehow made it better.

When P steals he takes it from deep cuts on albums and probably figures his fans 'll never notice, like the person on here who asked who is Billy Paul. But some of us have a more diverse collection of music and these things stick out like sore thumbs. P borrowed/stole from all over the place but gets a pass cos he's your personal god.

You're reaching for straws. And heavily.

.

Given the intimacy and personal nature of the lyrics, there's little chance prince was thinking about any song that he'd have no reason to make reference to. It's a 1000x more likely he was having a deep moment of love for Mayte and wrote a song about that particular feeling of wanting to have a baby with her.

lezama said:

You're reaching for straws. And heavily.

.

This.

Aside from the title, there is zero similarity between the two songs. How many songs are named "Baby", "America", "Automatic", "Delirious", "Party Up", "Sister", etc etc? Hell, both The Pointer Sisters and Van Halen had a song called "Jump" out at the same time. They were just about the two most different songs on the radio at the time.

Musician9 said:

Anyone ever noticed that Let's Have A Baby is definitely inspired by Billy Paul's 1975 song Let's Make A Baby? It's definitely similar in theme and title, which Prince probably knew about since he just changed the one word.

Apparently he inspired himself when he was working on a new version of "Electric Intercourse" then dropped it and opted to record a complete new song ("Let's Have A Baby") instead...
Most of "Emancipation" is him being "inspired" by binge listening and rerecording old material...

Neversin.

lezama said:

.

Given the intimacy and personal nature of the lyrics, there's little chance prince was thinking about any song that he'd have no reason to make reference to. It's a 1000x more likely he was having a deep moment of love for Mayte and wrote a song about that particular feeling of wanting to have a baby with her.

^ what a beautiful post, thanks lezama.

is what its about (this song).... I agree, and u are so right, thanks.....

Neversin said:

Musician9 said:

Anyone ever noticed that Let's Have A Baby is definitely inspired by Billy Paul's 1975 song Let's Make A Baby? It's definitely similar in theme and title, which Prince probably knew about since he just changed the one word.

Apparently he inspired himself when he was working on a new version of "Electric Intercourse" then dropped it and opted to record a complete new song ("Let's Have A Baby") instead...
Most of "Emancipation" is him being "inspired" by binge listening and rerecording old material...

Neversin.

There's a re-recording of Electric Intercourse??

The OP is correct. You only have to listen to Billy Paul singing 'Let's Make a Baby' and the melody is pretty much identical, although it's clear for the rest of the song, Prince added his own embellishments, so it's a case of ripping off part of it.

I'm not sure why all the other posters here are denying it, either they haven't bothered listening to it, need their ears cleaned or are not aware of other examples where Prince clearly copied other artists (sure he would have even admitted it).

Other notable examples are :

Purple Rain borrowing heavily from 'Faithfully' by Journey. In fact, Prince even asked them if it was ok to release such was the similarity and they raised no objections.

Girl 6 borrowing heavily from Phonesex by GOMAB (there was even a lawsuit over this, not sure what the conclusion was though)

More info here:

http://prince.org/msg/7/265655

Lavaux sounding very similar to the Pointer Sisters' Automatic.

Guitar directly copying the main riff from U2's I Will Follow.

There are many more, feel free to list! I'm not necessarily criticising as 'borrowing' happens all the time in art and doesn't really negate his ability it just shows how able he was to absorb and channel sounds from other artists and add his own spin on them. He also borrowed a lot of his visual appearance from Jimi Hendrix and Little Richard and that should be obvious to anyone!

[Edited 2/9/18 13:44pm]

TheFreakerFantastic said:

The OP is correct. You only have to listen to Billy Paul singing 'Let's Make a Baby' and the melody is pretty much identical, although it's clear for the rest of the song, Prince added his own embellishments, so it's a case of ripping off part of it.

I'm not sure why all the other posters here are denying it, either they haven't bothered listening to it, need their ears cleaned or are not aware of other examples where Prince clearly copied other artists (sure he would have even admitted it).

Other notable examples are :

Purple Rain borrowing heavily from 'Faithfully' by Journey. In fact, Prince even asked them if it was ok to release such was the similarity and they raised no objections.

Girl 6 borrowing heavily from Phonesex by GOMAB (there was even a lawsuit over this, not sure what the conclusion was though)

More info here:

http://prince.org/msg/7/265655

Lavaux sounding very similar to the Pointer Sisters' Automatic.

Guitar directly copying the main riff from U2's I Will Follow.

There are many more, feel free to list! I'm not necessarily criticising as 'borrowing' happens all the time in art and doesn't really negate his ability it just shows how able he was to absorb and channel sounds from other artists and add his own spin on them. He also borrowed a lot of his visual appearance from Jimi Hendrix and Little Richard and that should be obvious to anyone!

[Edited 2/9/18 13:44pm]

at long last, a sane voice amongst the idol worship. But you'll notice props given to P when he no matter what he does. Utter BS, I do not worship this dead man and think everything he made is pure gold, I just enjoy some of his music. Yeah, Guitar was pretty much I Will Follow mixed with Planet Earth by Duran Duran. like I said, he took a lot from classic rock acts, song titles and such, becaus ehe knew his diehard fans only knoew the worlds of randb, soul and funk, if they even have a vast knowledge of those genres. But my Lord, the title Sign Of The Times had been used so many times before 1987 it's a cliche, as was Crystal Ball.