Valentines season picks for THE perfect song.

Even though Valentine’s Day is over, it’s still February, so I’ve got one more hot song about lovin’ that I want to talk about. Can’t really make a list of hot songs and not include something by Prince, and his early perfect hit I Wanna Be Your Lover is my personal favorite.

Prince, sex, sex and Prince. They go together like peanut butter and jelly, right? My introduction to Prince was during my senior year of high school, 1984, when Purple Rain came out. I don’t think I was aware of him before that. My music taste was fairly limited and pedestrian when I was 18. Plus, I grew up far away from anything that was happening, so, again, limited access. That’s why I can’t get enough of people who are audiophiles and music buffs now. I just want to know, well, EVERYTHING.

Back to the purple one. I’m pretty sure the first time I heard/saw Prince performing I Wanna Be Your Lover, well, actually lip syncing, was on those American Bandstand and Midnight Special videos. You know, that famous performance while he’s wearing women’s lingerie. Zebra panties tight in all the right places, and that shredded zebra print vest thingy. His hair long, guitar strapped sexily across his torso. What other male could rock women’s lingerie? And still be deliciously attractive to women? No one. We all know that.

The song was released in 1979. It was the lead single from his second album. There are some other official videos of Prince singing this song and one in particular was considered so risque that it was never released. It was considered a disco hit, being released at the tail end of the disco craze, and reached Number 2 on Billboard’s Disco Action chart. The song propelled him to a level of fame that had eluded him and his earlier releases and garnered him a tour with Rick James.

The lyrics are pretty simple, and purely Prince with double entendres and suggestive images. I mean that chorus, right? Am I right? You know you feel it. Supposedly this song was written about Patrice Rushen and Prince’s crush on her.

There is not much I can add to a discussion of Prince except that if you were of a certain age in the 80s, you were so damn lucky to have been alive. His prolific output of fun, danceable sexy songs was major, I mean MAJOR! There was simply no one else who could compare to him- hello, yeah, a sideways reference to Nothing Compares 2U which he wrote for Sinead. And his absolutely genius ability to write prolifically, sing, and play virtually any instrument was unparalleled. His charisma, his affect, his entourage, his outfits. His commitment to absolute authenticity and control over his music.

I wanted to conclude the “love” songs for this month with this PERFECT song because it’s a song that makes you feel sexy when you sing it, sexy when you dance to it, sexy when you watch Prince, and we all need to feel sexy. Feeling sexy makes you literally look sexy. And when we look and feel sexy, we can make the world a happier place. And making the world a happier place is a noble cause. Prince sure as hell made the world a better place.

Listen to this, dance your ass off, feel sexy. I Wanna Be Your Lover is THE perfect song.

You can watch this and other videos at https://www.youtube.com/@SFB66