Trivia / Prince's Associates

• Breakup Breakout: Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis are probably better known for their decades as hitmaking producers and songwriters than as members of The Time. The duo wrote 16 Billboard Hot 100 #1 hits, while Prince only wrote six (five of his own, plus Sinead O'Connor's "Nothing Compares 2 U".) The duo's biggest success? Janet Jackson.
• One-Hit Wonder:
  • "Nasty Girl" was the only Vanity 6 single (out of four) to make any dents in the charts.
  • "Sex Shooter" became this for Apollonia 6. Their one other single, "Blue Limousine", didn't chart as well.
  • Averted by The Time. Although retroactively thought as one for "Jungle Love", they got into the top ten of the US R&B chart five times and the US Dance chart thrice; and their biggest single was actually "Jerk Out", which peaked at #9 on the US Hot 100.
  • Averted by Sheila E., whose "The Glamorous Life" and "A Love Bizarre" still get reasonable airplay on eighties radio stations.
• Throw It In!: Jerome Benton was acting as a roadie in various capacities for the Time during their early rehearsal. When Morris sang the lyric "Somebody get me a mirror", Jerome grabbed a large brass mirror off the wall and held it up for Morris to primp with as a joke. Prince loved it so much he demanded they replicate it on stage and hired Jerome on the spot as a hype man.
• What Could Have Been: The Time's original frontman was R&B singer Alexander O'Neal. He was removed after a disagreement with Prince over pay (it's also been cited that O'Neal was considered "too black" for the band) and replaced with Morris Day. Jellybean Johnson was then hired to replace Morris on drums. After The Time broke up, Jam & Lewis produced the first five albums for O'Neal, and his 1987 album Hearsay is a great way to hear what The Time fronted by O'Neal could have sounded like. The album even begins with a skit of O'Neal welcoming Jam, Jerome and Jellybean to his party, and he apes a few of Morris' catchphrases^note Which in actuality were Prince's catchphrases that he made up for the eventual singer on the original demos across the album.

---