Alphabet St.
| Alphabet St. | |
|---|---|
| Prince | |
| publication | April 25, 1988 |
| length | 5:40 |
| Genre (s) | Wireless |
| Author (s) | Prince |
| Producer (s) | Prince |
| Label | Paisley Park Records ( Warner Bros. Records ) |
| album | Lovesexy |
| Cover versions | |
| 1994 | The Jesus and Mary Chain |
| 2012 | Sufjan Stevens |
Alphabet St. is a song by the American musician Prince , released in 1988 , which he wrote , composed , arranged and produced . The piece is included on his album Lovesexy and was released on April 15, 1988 as the pre- single of the album.
background
Prince composed the song for his album Lovesexy , the follow-up to Sign o 'the Times (1987). The song was recorded at Paisley Park Studios, Prince himself produced the song.
Alphabet St. was first released as a single on April 15, 1988 in Great Britain (USA: April 23, 1988). In Sweden, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Belgium the title reached the top 10.
The song is 5:40 minutes long and appeared on the Lovesexy album . The single version, on the other hand, is shortened to 2:25 minutes. The album version of the song contains a rap verse that was snapped up by Cat Glover .
Alphabet St. can also be found on the Prince compilations The Hits / The B-Sides (1993), The Very Best of Prince (2001), Ultimate (2006) and 4Ever (2016). The song can also be heard as a live version on Prince's album Indigo Nights (2008).
The song is relatively open about oral sex .
Music video
The video shows Prince playing the song in front of a crowd of blinking letters. He dances, plays guitar and sings and also drives a car through the sea of letters. Individual words are displayed. Hidden messages in the sea of letters are: "She'll want me from my head to my feet", "heaven is so beautiful" ("Heaven is so beautiful.") , “4 the light dance” (“for the light dance”), “funk guitar”, “h is for the punks” (“Heroin is for scraps”) and “if U don't mind” (“if it's you does not bother ”). Also, the subliminal message "Don't buy the Black Album , I'm sorry" was hidden. The background was that Prince was no longer satisfied with the album and also thought it would bring out its dark side.
The video was directed by Patrick Epstein.
success
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Chart positions Explanation of the data |
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The song became a number one hit in New Zealand and Norway . Alphabet St. reached number 18 in the German charts , while it entered the top 10 in Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Cover versions
The Jesus and Mary Chain covered Alphabet St. as the B-side of their October 1994 single Come On . In 2012 Sufjan Stevens released a version of the song for his collection of Christmas songs Silver & Gold: Songs for Christmas Volumes 6-10.
Samples
Meat Beat Manifesto used a sample of the opening scream from Alphabet St. for their industrial song God OD as early as 1988
Nine Inch Nails used a sample from Alphabet St. for the song Ringfinger on the album Pretty Hate Machine (1990) and also thanked the musician in the booklet.
The indie rock band Ween used a sample from the song in 1992 for their songs Push Th 'Little Daisies and of course for LMLYP , their homage to Prince on their album GodWeenSatan: The Oneness .
The hip-hop band Arrested Development used a sample of the word Tennessee from Alphabet St. for their song of the same name from their first album 3 Years, 5 Months and 2 Days in the Life of… (1992). The then still young, inexperienced band didn't have the sample cleared beforehand. When the song charted, Arrested Development was sued by Prince's attorneys and fined $ 100,000.
Individual evidence
- ↑ release date
- ↑ a b Alphabet St. on Charts.org
- ↑ David Browne, David Browne: Lovesexy. In: Rolling Stone. June 16, 1988. Retrieved March 5, 2019 (American English).
- ↑ Emma Garland: Prince Wrote About Women in a Way That Most Contemporary Male Artists Still Can't. In: Noisey. April 25, 2016, Retrieved March 5, 2019 (American English).
- ↑ NME Blog: Prince's best songs: the NME edit. June 7, 2018, accessed March 5, 2019 (American English).
- ↑ raul: Prince “Don't Buy The Black Album, I'm Sorry” Hidden Message in Alphabet St. Video. In: FeelNumb.com. March 17, 2011, Retrieved March 5, 2019 (American English).
- ↑ Jason Draper: Prince: Life and Times: Revised and Updated Edition . Chartwell Books, 2016, ISBN 978-0-7603-5363-9 , pp. 84 ( google.de [accessed on March 5, 2019]).
- ↑ VJ SPOT. In: First Avenue. Retrieved March 5, 2019 .
- ↑ Charts DE Charts CH Charts UK Charts US
- ↑ Original versions of Alphabet Street by The Jesus and Mary Chain | SecondHandSongs. Retrieved March 5, 2019 .
- ↑ Lists: Sufjan Stevens Covers Prince. In: Pitchfork Media . Accessed March 5, 2019 .
- ↑ Listen to Sufjan Stevens cover Prince's “Alphabet St.” In: Consequence of Sound. November 10, 2012, accessed March 5, 2019 .
- ↑ Meat Beat Manifesto's 'God OD' - Discover the Sample Source. Accessed March 5, 2019 .
- ↑ 8 Things You Didn't Know About Nine Inch Nails' 'Broken'. In: Revolver Mag. September 18, 2017, accessed on March 5, 2019 (English).
- ↑ Drew Fortune: Dean Ween Remembers Prince: 'He Was My John Lennon'. In: Rolling Stone. May 6, 2016, Retrieved March 5, 2019 (American English).
- ^ Alphabet St. by Prince on WhoSampled. Accessed March 5, 2019 .
- ^ Songfacts: Speech of Arrested Development: Songwriter Interviews. Accessed March 5, 2019 .