1999 (album)
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| 1999 | ||
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| Studio album by Prince | ||
| Released | October 27, 1982 | |
| Recorded | Sunset Sound and Minneapolis 1982 | |
| Genre | Pop, Rock, Funk | |
| Length | 70:10 | |
| Label | Warner Bros. Records | |
| Producer(s) | Prince | |
| Professional reviews | ||
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| Prince chronology | ||
| Controversy (1981) |
1999 (1982) |
Purple Rain (1984) |
1999 is Prince's fifth album, released October 27, 1982. It became his first top ten album on the Billboard 200. The album was originally released on vinyl as a double set (Prince's first) and opens with the classic title track. A single vinyl edition was also pressed in some countries; Brazil also sold each of the vinyls in the double set separately as 1999 and 1999 - II. [1]
Not for the last time, Prince is concerned about the possibility of armageddon and nuclear attack and urges his listeners to "party like it’s 1999". The song reached number twelve on the Billboard Hot 100 (later making number two on the UK charts, with "Little Red Corvette" as the double A-side). "Little Red Corvette" was the song that propelled Prince towards stardom in the USA. With the music video, he became one of the first black artists to be played on the new music video channel MTV. The song peaked at number six stateside. Whilst "Little Red Corvette" helped break Prince to the wider (white) rock audience, the rest of the album is dominated by funk and synthesizer dance tracks. The third U.S. single "Delirious" is a lightweight pop music number which still managed top ten status in the USA. "Let’s Pretend We're Married" is a tight, funk track with typically smutty lyrics.
Side 3 starts with "Automatic", which is almost ten minutes of synthesizers, with bawdy bondage imagery in the lyrics, as well as the unreleased music video (which was considered too hot for MTV back in 1983 due to its S&M imagery with a scene that depicted Prince being tied up and whipped by Lisa Coleman and Jill Jones). "Free" is a delicate piano ballad expressing patriotism, while "Something in the Water (Does Not Compute)" is an ode to a harsh lover that dabbles in the new Computer Age. "Lady Cab Driver" and "All the Critics Love U in New York" are both experiments with synths and sound effects, while delivering sex-soaked lyrics (the latter was rumored to be an attack on the critics who gave Controversy a harsh review). The final track, "International Lover" is a seductive ballad in the tradition of Controversy’s "Do Me, Baby".
This album secured Prince a place in the public psyche and within two years, following massively successful tours and a selection of hit singles, Prince was, arguably, the biggest musical star on the planet next to Michael Jackson. In 2003 the TV network VH1 named 1999 the forty-ninth greatest album of all time. In 2003, the album was ranked number 163 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. [2]
Contents |
[edit] Album credits
- "1999" (Co-lead vocal: Lisa, J.J. and Dez)
- "Little Red Corvette" (Guitar Solos: Dez. Co-lead vocal: Lisa and Dez)
- "Delirious" (Background vocal: Lisa)
- "D.M.S.R." (Background singing and handclaps by: Lisa, Jamie, Carol, Peggy, Brown Mark, Poochie & The Count)
- "Automatic" (Background vocals: Lisa & J.J.)
- "Free" (Background voices: Lisa, J.J., Vanity & Wendy)
- "Lady Cab Driver" (Lady Cab Driver: J.J.)
- All remaining music and lyrics written by Prince
[edit] Track listing
[edit] Double vinyl / CD
- "1999" – 3:37
- "Little Red Corvette" – 4:58
- "Delirious" – 3:56
- "Let's Pretend We're Married" – 7:21
- "D.M.S.R." – 8:17 (omitted from original CD due to time contraints)
- "Automatic" – 9:28
- "Something In the Water (Does Not Compute)" – 4:02
- "Free" – 5:08
- "Lady Cab Driver" – 8:19
- "All the Critics Love U In New York" – 5:59
- "International Lover" – 6:37
[edit] Single vinyl
- "1999" – 6:22
- "Little Red Corvette" – 4:58
- "Delirious" – 3:56
- "Free" – 5:08
- "Let's Pretend We're Married" – 7:21
- "Something In the Water (Does Not Compute)" – 4:02
- "Lady Cab Driver" – 8:19
[edit] Singles and Hot 100 Chart Placings
- "1999" (#12 U.S., #4 R&B, #25 UK)
- "1999"
- "How Come U Don't Call Me Anymore?"
- "Little Red Corvette" (#6 U.S., #15 R&B)
- "Little Red Corvette"
- "All the Critics Love U In New York"
- "Delirious" (#8 U.S., #18 R&B)
- "Delirious"
- "Horny Toad"
- "Let's Pretend We're Married" (#52 U.S., #55 R&B)
- "Let's Pretend We're Married"
- "Irresistible Bitch"
- "Automatic" (AUS)
- "Automatic"
- "Something In the Water (Does Not Compute)"
[edit] Miscellanea
- "Irresistible Bitch" is not featured on the album, but received significant airplay as the B-side to "Let's Pretend We're Married" to have it listed as a double-sided hit in Billboard.
- "Little Red Corvette" was Prince's first top ten on the Billboard Hot 100.
- "1999" was originally the first single released from the album and it peaked at number forty-four. After the top ten success of "Little Red Corvette", and abundant airplay on MTV it was re-released and hit number twelve.
- 1999 was originally released as a double vinyl album. When the compact disc was a new product on the market and many albums were bring transferred to this new media, technological limitations of CD players did not allow playing discs longer than approximately 70–74 minutes. Thus in early CD pressings of 1999, the track "D.M.S.R." was omitted.
- The song "1999" was originally to be sung entirely in three part harmony between Prince, guitarist Dez Dickerson and Lisa Coleman. While mixing the track, Prince split up the vocal parts and decided it sounded better with each line of the lyrics sung by a different individual.
- The 1999 album cover makes the first reference to Prince's band, The Revolution. Shown within the letter "I" in "Prince" are the words and the Revolution written backwards; though when held to a mirror, the cover reads "and the Revolution".
- On the cover, the "I" in "Prince" is the numeral "1", whereas the "1" in "1999" is a thinly disguised phallic symbol.
- The cover also features elements from the cover of Prince's previous album Controversy, namely the eyes and the "Rude Boy" pin in the "1999", the jacket studs in the "R" and the smile in the "P".
[edit] External links
1999 lyrics
