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Prince · S2 E4
I Wanna Be Your Lover
The breakthrough. A number-one R&B hit, a Top 20 pop crossover, and a second album that proves the debut was no fluke
A living room in Minneapolis, late summer 1979. A woman reaches for the radio dial to change the station, stops mid-reach, and asks the person next to her: who is that singing?
"I Wanna Be Your Lover" (Prince, 1979). The song that took Prince from R&B curiosity to pop contender. A falsetto, a Fender Rhodes, and a groove that refuses to let go.
I Wanna Be Your Lover, Prince (1979)
The track opens with a Fender Rhodes riff so simple it sounds like it wrote itself. Prince layers a disco-influenced four-on-the-floor kick under a synth bass line and his own multi-tracked falsetto, creating something that belongs on both the R&B and pop charts at the same time. He plays every instrument again, but for the first time the production feels designed for maximum reach rather than pure artistic statement. Listen for the guitar that sneaks in during the bridge: that's Prince reminding you this is still funk, no matter how pop the chorus sounds.
Sources
Thorne, Matt. "Prince: The Man and His Music." Faber & Faber, 2012.
Hahn, Alex. "Possessed: The Rise and Fall of Prince." Billboard Books, 2003.
“That record changed everything for us. We went from playing to two hundred people to playing to two thousand overnight.”
— Dez Dickerson, guitarist, as quoted in Possessed: The Rise and Fall of Prince (Alex Hahn, 2003)
TAP TO REVEAL: What happened when Prince appeared on American Bandstand?
The Second Album
The self-titled second album arrives in October 1979, and Prince has learned from For You's modest sales. The songs are tighter, the hooks are sharper, and the production is aimed directly at radio. He records in Los Angeles, still playing every instrument himself, but this time with a clear target: make people dance first, ask questions later.
Sources
Nilsen, Per. "DanceMusicSexRomance: Prince, the First Decade." Firefly Publishing, 1999.
Hahn, Alex. "Possessed: The Rise and Fall of Prince." Billboard Books, 2003.
Alpha Studios
The Burbank recording studio where Prince cut his self-titled second album, once again playing every instrument himself but now with the hooks turned up to maximum.
I Wanna Be Your Lover: The Numbers
I Feel for You, Prince (1979)
A deep cut from the same album that produced "I Wanna Be Your Lover." Five years later, Chaka Khan covered this song and turned it into one of the biggest hits of 1984, winning a Grammy and proving that Prince could write smashes for other artists as easily as for himself. The original is quieter, more vulnerable, and worth hearing before the version the rest of the world knows.
I Feel for You, Prince (1979)
Stripped of Chaka Khan's hip-hop production and Stevie Wonder's harmonica, Prince's original is a raw love song from a twenty-one-year-old who sounds like he means every word. Compare these lyrics to the version the world knows and hear how much was already there.
What made "I Wanna Be Your Lover" unusual compared to Prince's debut album For You?
The pop world has accepted Prince as a funk and R&B artist, but he's already bored with the category. Next: rock guitars on a funk album, confused radio programmers, and the first sign that Prince will never stay in one lane.
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