Music / 1999 (Album)

'Cuz they say two thousand zero zero
Party over, oops, out of time

I guess I should've known by the way
You parked your car sideways that it wouldn't last
See, you're the kinda person that believes in makin' out once
Love 'em and leave 'em fast

I guess I must be dumb
'Cause you had a pocket full of horses
Trojan and some of them used
But it was Saturday night, I guess that makes it all right
And you say, "What have I got to lose?"

— "Little Red Corvette"

1999 is the fifth studio album recorded by American funk/R&B recording artist Prince, and the first to feature the Revolution as his backing band. It was released through Warner Bros. Records on October 27, 1982.

Regarded as his breakthrough hit, the addition of the Revolution polished off the rock side of his new movement, the "Minneapolis sound". It would be the launching point of a new brand of post-disco R&B, and launch the careers of many people associated with him, especially musicians Wendy Melvoin and Lisa Coleman—who would become known collectively as "Wendy and Lisa".

The Title Track, an upbeat Protest Song against nuclear proliferation, would prove timely, as that would become a recurring subject for American pop culture in 1983 with the final heat-up of the Cold War. But it was also a monstrous double album that was nearly wall-to-wall Epic Rocking; six of its 11 tracks far exceeded six minutes.

The album would be Prince's first one to reach the Top Ten of the Billboard 200 album chart, peaking at #7. It also reached #28 on the Official Charts Company album chart. It would go quadruple-Platinum in the United States, and yield his first Platinum albums in the United Kingdom and Canada.

The album was supported by four singles: the Title Track, "Little Red Corvette", "Delirious", and "Let's Pretend We're Married". The first three were all Top 20 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, with "Little Red Corvette" peaking highest at #6. While both were hits in their original run, "1999" and "Little Red Corvette" would see re-release in the UK as a double A-side in 1985, and peak at #2 at that time.

The performance music videos for "1999" and "Little Red Corvette" would make Prince one of the first Black artists seen in heavy rotation on MTV.

The album was remastered in 2019, with all eleven original tracks on a single CD, and multiple special editions were released at that time. The Deluxe edition added a second disc with various B-sides and remixes. The Super Deluxe edition added three more CD's that included unreleased material and recordings from the promotional tour, as well as a DVD featuring his concert from December 29, 1982, in Houston, Texas.

The album was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2008. Ironically, it wasn't even nominated for any Grammys.

Tracklist

LP One

Side One

1. "1999" (6:15)
2. "Little Red Corvette" (5:03)
3. "Delirious" (4:00)

Side Two

4. "Let's Pretend We're Married" (7:21)
5. "D.M.S.R." (8:17)^note Absent on CD releases before 1990.

LP Two

Side Three

6. "Automatic" (9:28)
7. "Something in the Water (Does Not Compute)" (4:02)
8. "Free" (5:08)

Side Four

9. "Lady Cab Driver" (8:19)
10. "All the Critics Love U in New York" (5:59)
11. "International Lover" (6:37)

CD releases are on a single disc.

Personnel

• Prince – lead and backing vocals and all other instruments
• Dez Dickerson – co-lead vocals (1), guitar solos and backing vocals (2)
• Lisa Coleman – co-lead vocals (1), backing vocals (2, 3, 5, 6, 8)
• Jill Jones – co-lead vocals (1), backing vocals (6, 8, 9)
• Vanity – backing vocals (8)
• Wendy Melvoin – backing vocals (8)

"It comes 2 makin' a trope, pretty mama, I just can't win a race":

• Auto Erotica: "Little Red Corvette" is among Prince's more explicit songs about sex. But "Delirious" is a different take on the concept.
• Drives Like Crazy: This is the different use of Auto Erotica in "Delirious".
• The End of the World as We Know It: The Title Track suggests that if someone pushes the button, they might as well go out partying.
  Yeah, everybody's got a bomb
  We could all die any day
  But before I'll let that happen
  I'll dance my life away
• Epic Rocking: Six tracks over six minutes, three over eight minutes, and one right at 9 1/2 minutes. A seventh track ends right at 5:59.
• Franchise Codifier: While Dirty Mind was Prince's first album to use his signature raunchiness and "Minneapolis Sound," 1999 is what galvanized his style, fully embracing synthesizers & drum machines and introducing a variety of eclectic themes and influences.
• Intercourse with You: Continuing on from the increased raunchiness on Dirty Mind, 1999 contains a number of sexually explicit songs about, well, sex.
• Lyrical Dissonance: The Title Track is an upbeat funk anthem about nuclear annihilation.
• New Sound Album: After the straightforward mix of New Wave Music and post-disco on Dirty Mind and Controversy, 1999 sees Prince fully integrate it with Synth-Pop, codifying the Minneapolis Sound in the process.
• Product Placement: Why else would he refer to that "pocket full of horses" as Trojan?
• Real Life Writes the Plot: Prince was inspired to write "Little Red Corvette" after sleeping in Lisa's car, a pink 1964 Mercury Montclair Marauder.
• Re-Cut:
  • Releases of the album in some countries truncate it to a single LP due to budgetary reasons, omitting "D.M.S.R.", "Automatic", "All the Critics Love U in New York", and "International Lover" and rearranging the seven remaining tracks.
  • Early CD releases mostly follow the double-LP tracklist, but remove "D.M.S.R." to get the album under 65 minutes. Even though the 70:29 album is long enough to fit on one 74-minute Redbook-compliant disc without issue, PolyGram, who Warner frequently contracted to manufacture CDs during the first half of the '80s, could only make discs up to 65 minutes in length. This would be rectified in 1990, with CD releases from that point on restoring the track.
• Spoken Word in Music:
  • The Title Track (and by extension the album) opens with a pitch-shifted Prince:
  Don't worry
  I won't hurt you
  I only want you to have some fun
  • "Let's Pretend We're Married" features an interlude depicting Prince telling his partner about his sexual desires in explicit detail.
• The Stinger: The full-length version of the Title Track ends with a child asking:
  Mom? Why does everybody have a bomb?
  Mommy? Why does everybody have a bomb?
• Updated Re-release: CD reissues from 1990 onward restore "D.M.S.R.", which was inexplicably left off of early releases on the format.

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