Prince, his “Kiss” turns 40

In April 1985 Prince was busy recording at Sunset Sound’s Studio 3 in Hollywood. His bass player, Brown Markwas in the studio next door to produce the first album of Mazaratia band signed to his record label, la Paisley Park. Princeto support his friend’s project, he had written several songs for them. One though, “Jerk out”, it had lyrics that were too explicit so much so that the band refused to sing it and on April 27th asked a Prince another song to include on the album.

According to the biographer Benoit Clerc, Prince he then decided to pause his session and, in front of a stunned Susan Rogers (at the time the Prince’s sound engineer)he picked up an acoustic guitar and recorded a new piece on his huge green portable stereo that always brought with him. It was the first “demo” version of “Kiss”. He took out the tape, handed it to the band and told them, “Do whatever you want with it.”

David Rivkin And Coke Johnsonrespectively producer and sound engineer of Mazaratithey immediately got to work, finishing the piece that same day. The following day, Prince he listened to the tape while playing basketball in the Sunset Sound courtyard, went back into the studio and said a Casey Terrythe band’s frontman: “She’s too good for you, I’ll take her back.”

Just like he had done for “When doves cry”, Prince removed the bass track and added a guitar break in the chorus (borrowing it from “Papa’s Got A Brand New Bag” Of James Brown) before recording the new vocal part. Of the version of Mazarati only the choirs, attributed to Marvin Gunn (“Marr Starr”) and to the guitarist Tony Christian. He also participated in the recording of the song David Z. who added to the song a rhythmic pattern created with the Linn 9000 – the revolutionary drum machine launched a few months earlier – and a piano line which he confessed to having “stolen” from a song by Bo Diddley. You can also see it in the video Wendy Melvoin play the acoustic guitar but in reality it was always played in the studio by David Z.

“Kiss” However, it also represents one of the first chapters of the difficult relationship between the genius of Minneapolis and the recording industry: a real war that lasted years. The song was included at the last minute on his eighth album “Parade”released on March 31, 1986. The heads of Warner Bros, however, hated the song, and were not at all happy when the singer decided to release it as a single (with a B-side “Love or money”). But he was right Prince: “Kiss” will come out on February 5, 1986, for both the American and European markets, quickly becoming one of his greatest successes.

In the United States, the song reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart on April 19, 1986, remaining at the top for two weeks and selling over one million copies. In England the single will stop at number 6 in the UK Chart, in Australia at number 2, while in Italy it will reach number 11.

“Kiss” it immediately became a classic in the Prince of Minneapolis concerts. According to the website Setlist.fm, it was the second most performed song live by Princebehind only “Purple Rain”. This is a live version recorded in December 1999 at Paisley Park Studios for the TV show “Rave Un2 The Year 2000” which aired on demand on the night of December 31, 1999.

Like all great songs too “Kiss” has been the subject of and boasts a good number of covers, some of which are listed below.

Age of Chance – The first cover in chronological order is the “industrial” reinterpretation published by the English band Age Of Chance in 1986, when the original version was still in the charts. The song will reach the top of the UK Indie Chart. The opening of the song is changed to “You don’t have to be Prince if you want to dance / You just have to get down with the Age Of Chance.”

Tom Jones & the Art of Noise – In 1989 “Kiss” returned to the charts thanks to the Art Of Noise version, sung by Tom Jones which reached number 5 in the UK (therefore doing better than the original version). Tom had been convinced by his son (who was also his manager) to sing the song to “be more contemporary”. The Welsh singer chooses to change the lyrics slightly and “Women, Not Girls rule my world” becomes “Women and Girls, rule my world.” Fun fact: Prince and Tom Jones were both born on June 7th.

Maroon 5 – In 2012 Maroon 5 included the cover of “Kiss” in the Deluxe edition of their album “Overexposed” (read the review here). Prince did not appreciate their version and stated that it added nothing new to his original recording and stated to Billboard: “I pay royalties on other people’s songs that I perform live, but I don’t record these songs for sale. Why on earth would we listen to another cover of someone else’s song?” In reality, the version by Adam Levine and his companions, with its boogie groove and slowed-down interlude, is decidedly different from the original.

Joan as Police Woman – Sensual acoustic reinterpretation published by the American singer-songwriter in 2019 and contained in the collection “Joanthology” (read the review here).

Richard Thompson – Thompson considered the song “one of the best pop songs of the ’80s, by one of the best artists in history.” His “guitar and vocals” cover appears on the live album “1000 Years of Popular Music” released in 2003.

Señor Coconut and His Orchestra – Señor Coconut is the project of the German musician Uwe Schmidt who enjoys reinterpreting the most famous hits by combining electronic music with salsa, merengue, mambo and chachacha. The cover of “Kiss” is contained in the album “Around the World with Señor Coconut and His Orchestra” released in 2008.

Beck – In 2019 Beck released the EP “Paisley Park Sessions” recorded in the Minneapolis studios exclusively for Amazon Music. The album also features a tribute to Prince with a medley of four songs: “Raspberry Beret,” “When Doves Cry,” “Kiss,” and “1999.” The track is called “The Paisley Experience”.

Sabrina – Sabrina Salerno also sang Prince’s famous hit. The cover appears on his debut album released in 1987 in the wake of the success of the single “Boys (Summertime love)”.

Bjelleklang – An a cappella version sung in Norwegian: if you love “courageous” covers this is for you. Bjelleklang included the cover on their debut album “Dæng Dæng” released in 1991 and which, according to Wikipedia, went gold in Norway.

Maurilio Giordana (blog owner “MyWay”)