Listen to Prince’s rare acoustic demo for ‘I Feel For You’
I’m sure you didn’t need more proof regarding the genius of Prince, but here it is: a rare acoustic cover of his 1979 track ‘I Feel For You’ from his self-titled studio effort. Boasting that trademark falsetto alongside a scintillating guitar arrangment, this track strips back the glam maestro’s maximalist production aesthetic to leave a dynamite piece of songwriting expertly delivered. It’s Prince at his rawest.
Never released as a single, ‘I Feel For You’ became a hit in the hands of Chaka Khan, who was drawn not only to Prince’s sun-bleached chord progressions but to his lustful, gender-neutral lyricism, which translated easily to a female singer such as Khan. The soul singer had originally intended to release a faithful rework of the 1979 original. That’s why she was surprised when her producer, Arif Mardin, played her the Melle Mel rap he’d included in the final mix.
Chaka hated the rap and loathed hearing her name repeated over and over again. Speaking to NPR, Mardin explained that the staccato repetition effect came about completely by accident. “We were mounting the recording onto the main master, my hand slipped on the repeat machine. So it happened to be, ‘Chaka-Chaka-Chaka-Chaka-Chaka-Chaka Khan,’ and we said, ‘Let’s keep that. That’s very interesting.'” Unconvinced, Khan was eventually persuaded that the rap would make the song a hit, precisely what she needed at the time. Khan’s previous solo albums hadn’t sold as the label had expected, and they were pressuring her for a hit record.
There was a lot to lose. Chaka and Arif understood that if they didn’t come up with the goods, Khan would probably be sent off to record with another producer. Not wanting to be separated from the singer, Mardin gave the label what it wanted: a hit record featuring state-of-the-art synthesisers and a driving, high-energy rhythm track, the same one that had characterised Prince’s original recording.
This solo acoustic demo, recorded in late 1978 or early 1979, was released as a standalone digital track and limited-run, 7-inch purple in 2019 to mark the 40th anniversary of the Prince album. The more fleshed-out version, recorded in February 1978 at Music Farm Studios in New York, certainly has its charm, but there’s something in the way Prince’s vocal blends with those jangling acoustic chords. Simple yet masterful, this demo is a testament to the purity of Prince’s talent.
