Today’s video is Prince’s song I Feel For You as performed by Chaka Khan. It won him the 1985 Grammy Award for Best R&B Song.
I think we were all shocked by the death of Prince yesterday. I’m not going to turn this into a big tribute post as I don’t really do those (I did a very short post for David Bowie but it was a struggle as I’m such a big fan). I’ll just say that I don’t have loads of knowledge when it comes to all of Prince’s work but there’s no denying that the man had a massive amount of talent that we rarely see in new artists these days. This really is a sad year for celebrity deaths as we’ve lost some absolute legends. And what are we left with? There are so few true originals anymore. Look at David Bowie. And Freddie Mercury. And Prince. True superstars. What’s the equivalent these days?! I feel kind of sad for the current generation of kids who have to grow up with those who pass as “music stars” nowadays.
As for Prince’s music, I’m of course most fond of his early & mid-80’s stuff because of the age that I am. Soon after that, I turned into more of a rock & metal fan so I left things like Prince behind. I’m not going to pretend that he was ever a favorite artist of mine musically but I really liked several of his songs from that time period. I’m not sure what my favorite would be… If I’m honest, it’s probably either Delirious or Raspberry Beret but those might seem like odd choices to most people. Well, I think they’re great. đ My next favorites would be Little Red Corvette, 1999, When Doves Cry, Purple Rain & Let’s Go Crazy. Yes, it looks like those are all between 1982 & 1985 so it’s obvious what era I liked but he’s one of those artists where everyone will have their own favorite time period of his work.
Prince of course also wrote a lot of great songs which became huge hits performed by other artists. One of the biggest was SinĂ©ad O’Connor’s Nothing Compares 2 U and I really like Manic Monday by The Bangles (and get super annoyed anytime I hear it played on the radio on a day other than Monday. That should be against the law!). My favorite, though, is his song I Feel For You as performed by Chaka Khan. That’s more my type of thing! Chaka Khan is awesome & the video was great.
Here’s a bit about the song & video from Wikipedia:
“Khan’s version featured an all-star supporting cast, with rapping from Melle Mel, keyboard and guitar by The System’s David Frank, and chromatic harmonica playing by Stevie Wonder. The video featured Khan with a disc jockey and break dancers Shabba Doo, Boogaloo Shrimp, Bruno Falcon and Ana SĂĄnchezâall of whom appeared in the movie Breakin’.”
Yes! Breakin’ rules. This era of music was the best. I miss this kind of thing…
Finally, I’ll end with a clip of Prince performing a version of his classic Purple Rain. His videos aren’t available on YouTube, which is why I haven’t shared any, but I think this clip is the perfect way to end this post.
R.I.P. Prince Rogers Nelson (June 7, 1958 â April 21, 2016)
Cinema Parrot Disco 