Prince Charming (album)

Prince Charming
Studio album by Adam and the Ants
Released	November 1981
Recorded	Air Studios, London. August 1981.
Genre	New Wave
Label	Epic
Producer	Chris Hughes
Adam and the Ants chronology
Kings of the Wild Frontier (1980) Prince Charming (1981) Friend or Foe (1982)

Prince Charming is the third and final album by Adam and the Ants, released in 1981 (see 1981 in music). Unlike Kings of the Wild Frontier, Prince Charming showed the Ants moving away from their earlier Burundi drum style. This album features former Roxy Music bass player Gary Tibbs in place of Kevin Mooney, the bassist from Kings of the Wild Frontier. The album spawned the two Number-One singles "Stand and Deliver" and "Prince Charming", then the Top-Ten single "Ant Rap". The album was remastered and reissued in 2004 with several demo tracks.

The song "Prince Charming" has musical similarities to Rolf Harris' 1965 song "War Canoe", and in March 2010 Harris claimed on BBC Radio 5live's Danny Baker Show that an out-of-court settlement had been reached and a large sum of royalties received after a musicologist had found the two songs to be musically identical.

Contents 1 Reception 2 Track listing 3 Personnel 4 Notes 5 References

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[1]

Allmusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine rated Prince Charming three-and-a-half out of five stars. He explained that it was "a markedly different record than [Kings of the Wild Frontier], intentionally so", and that "the songs just aren't there." However, he concluded by stating that it "simply has style and sound -- which, in retrospect, isn't all that bad".^[1]

Track listing

All songs written by Adam Ant and Marco Pirroni except as noted.

1. "Scorpios" – 2:46
2. "Picasso Visita El Planeta De Los Simios" – 3:28
3. "Prince Charming" – 3:18
4. "Five Guns West" – 5:02
5. "That Voodoo!" – 4:18
6. "Stand and Deliver" – 3:35
7. "Mile High Club" – 2:42
8. "Ant Rap" – 3:26
9. "Mowhok" – 3:28
10. "S.E.X." – 5:00
11. "The Lost Hawaiians" - 1:05 (unlisted track)

Some releases have "Prince Charming" as track 1, and "Scorpios" as track 3.

Prince Charming was remastered and reissued in 2004 with six demo tracks:

12. "Prince Charming (Demo)" – 3:09
13. "Stand and Deliver (Demo)" – 3:04
14. "Showbiz (Demo)" – 3:07
15. "Picasso Visits the Planet of the Apes (Demo)" – 3:21
16. "Who's a Goofy Bunny Then? (Demo)" – 4:24
17. "Scorpio Writing (Demo)" – 3:20

Personnel

• Adam Ant – Vocals, Main Performer
• Marco Pirroni - Guitar
• Merrick - Drums
• Terry Lee Miall - Drums
• Gary Tibbs - Bass
• Ross Cullum – Engineer
• Chris Hughes – Producer

Notes

• "Stand and Deliver" spent the most weeks at number 1 in the UK singles chart for 1981 (5 weeks) and was the 2nd biggest seller of the year after Soft Cell's Tainted Love
• "Prince Charming" spent 4 weeks at the number 1 in the UK singles chart^[2] and was the 3rd best selling single of 1981.
• "Prince Charming" is the 1st 80's song played in series one of Ashes to Ashes after Dec. Alex Drake "wakes up" to find herself "trapped" in 1981.
• British screen legend Diana Dors plays the "fairy Godmother" in the video for "Prince Charming".
• Scottish pop singer Lulu makes a cameo appearance in the video for "Ant Rap", playing a "damsel in distress".
• The album Prince Charming was the 9th best-selling album in the UK for 1981. Adam and the Ants' previous album Kings of the Wild Frontier was the #1 seller, meaning that the band had 2 best-selling albums of 1981 inside the top 10.
• To cash in on the success of singles "Stand and Deliver", "Prince Charming" and "Ant Rap", Decca Records released "Deutscher Girls/Plastic Surgery" as a single in 1982 (prior to Adam Ant's next official single release "Goody Two Shoes"), which made it to #13 on the UK singles chart. "Deutscher Girls/Plastic Surgery" are early songs from the Jubilee OST and do not feature any of the "Ants" (including Marco) from the Kings of the Wild Frontier/Prince Charming era, only Adam Ant.

References

Adam Ant Albums as Adam & the Ants Dirk Wears White Sox (1979) Kings of the Wild Frontier (1980) Prince Charming (1981) Solo albums Friend or Foe (1982) Strip (1983) Vive Le Rock (1985) Manners & Physique (1990) Wonderful (1995) Adam Ant Is the Blueblack Hussar in Marrying the Gunner's Daughter (2012) Persuasion (recorded 1991, rejected by record company) Compilations Hits (1986) Antics in the Forbidden Zone (1990) Antmusic: The Very Best of Adam Ant (1994) B-Side Babies (1994) The Very Best of Adam and the Ants (1999) Stand & Deliver (2006) Dandy Highwaymen (2007) Singles "Deutscher Girls" (1982; recorded 1978) "Young Parisians" (1978, reissued 1980) "Zerox" (1979; reissued 1981) "Kings of the Wild Frontier" (1980, reissued 1981) "Dog Eat Dog" (1980) "Antmusic" (1980) "Cartrouble" (1981) Stand and Deliver" (1981) "Prince Charming" (1981) "Ant Rap" (1981) "Goody Two Shoes" (1982) "Friend or Foe" (1982) "Desperate But Not Serious" (1982) "Puss‘n‘Boots" (1983) "Strip" (1984) "Apollo 9" (1984) "Vive Le Rock" (1984) "Room at the Top" (1990) "Rough Stuff" "Can’t Set Rules About Love" (1990) "Wonderful" (1995) "Gotta Be a Sin" (1995) Acting appearances Jubilee (1977) Cannon and Ball (1982) Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever (1983, TV episode) Entertaining Mr Sloane (1985 theatre performance) The Equalizer (1985, TV episode) Nomads Amazing Stories (1987 episode) Slam Dance (1987) Sledge Hammer! (1987 episode) Cold Steel (1987) World Gone Wild (1988) Out of Time (1988) Trust Me (1989) Midnight Heat (1991) Tales from the Crypt (1992 episode) Spellcaster (1992) Northern Exposure (1992 episode) Love Bites (1992) West (1993 theatre performance) Be Bop A Lula (1993 theatre performance) Acting on Impulse (1993) Drop Dead Rock (1993) Desert Winds (1995) Cyber Bandits (1995) Batman: The Animated Series (1995) Funeral Games (1996 theatre performance) Lover’s Knot (1996) Face Down (1996) Junk (1997) La Femme Nikita (1999 episode) Related Discography Bazooka Joe