| "Alphabet St." | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
U.S. 7" single |
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| Single by Prince | ||||
| from the album Lovesexy | ||||
| B-side | "Alphabet St. (This is not music, this is a trip)" | |||
| Released | April 23, 1988 | |||
| Format | 7" single 12" single CD single |
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| Recorded | Paisley Park Studios; December 1987–January 1988 | |||
| Genre | Pop, funk | |||
| Length | 7" edit: 2:25 Album/12": 5:39 Video edit: 2:24 |
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| Label | Paisley Park | |||
| Writer(s) | Prince | |||
| Producer | Prince | |||
| Prince singles chronology | ||||
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"Alphabet St." was the first single from Prince's 1988 album, Lovesexy, and the album's only top 10 single, reaching the top-10 in both the UK and U.S.. The song includes a rap by Cat Glover and is full of samples, and generally repeats themes from Lovesexy. Within the context of the album Lovesexy (which only contained one track containing all the songs featured within the work), "Alphabet St." is meant to stand in contrast to the gospel of "I Know" which plays off of the Christian ethics describing Prince's personal belief in Christian concepts of Heaven, Hell, the Devil, and God; emphatically stating "No" to the previous stated praise (and laud of a preacher's voice in the background) and launching into the sensual, provocative lyrics of "Alphabet St."
The B-side is a remix of "Alphabet St." called "Alphabet St. ("This is not music, this is a trip")". The title and other phrases are repeated at the beginning of the song, but essentially, it's an instrumental with a few minor changes.
"Alphabet St." was the first Prince single released as a CD, albeit only in the UK and Japan. A promo CD was issued in the US.
Contents |
| UK | 9 |
| U.S. Billboard Hot 100 | 8 |
| U.S. R&B | 3 |
In the video, there are two hidden messages. The first appears after the end of the first verse ("She'll want me from my head to my feet"), there is a split second image with the hidden message "Don't buy The Black Album, I'm sorry." The second one is after Prince drives the Thunderbird; the message says "H is 4 Punks". The video features Prince wearing trousers with his name on them, and wearing multicolored eyeshadow.Another message appears in the video,at 0:38 of the video,if seen by the letter B,it has the word as Beautiful,after a one second,there is a message said on top of the B,which has the message,"Heaven Is So Beautiful".