The Beautiful Ones

"The Beautiful Ones" is the third track on Prince and the Revolution's soundtrack album Purple Rain. It was one of three songs produced, arranged, composed, and performed by Prince, the other two being "When Doves Cry" and "Darling Nikki". The song was recorded at Sunset Sound in Los Angeles by Peggy Mac and David Leonard[2] on September 20, 1983.[1] The song replaced "Electric Intercourse" on the Purple Rain album.[3]

This article is about the song by Prince. For the single by Suede, see Beautiful Ones.
"The Beautiful Ones"
Song by Prince
from the album Purple Rain
ReleasedJune 25, 1984[1]
RecordedSeptember 20, 1983[1]
StudioSunset Sound, Los Angeles [1]
GenrePsychedelic pop, R&B
Length5:13
LabelWarner Bros.
Songwriter(s)Prince[2]
Producer(s)Prince[2]

The version on the Purple Rain album is slightly cut; a longer version of the song exists.

Content

In the film, The Kid (Prince) sings the song directly from the stage to Apollonia, who is sitting with his rival Morris Day. The song is a direct and urgent appeal to Apollonia to choose Prince as her lover—and it is a direct challenge to Day. Ultimately, as the song ends and Prince lies, apparently spent, on the floor of the stage, Apollonia leaves in tears. (Later, she returns to the Kid when he is unlocking his motorcycle to leave the club.)

Origin

"The Beautiful Ones" was originally said to be written for Susannah Melvoin[4] (Revolution band member Wendy's twin sister) to woo her away from her then-boyfriend.[5] The timeline fits, as Susannah was seeing someone else when she met Prince in May 1983. The notion that the song was written for her was also confirmed by engineer Susan Rogers. Melvoin has admitted that she isn't completely sure about the genesis of the song: "I can't say that the song was exactly our story, but he wrote it during that time," Melvoin says in Let's Go Crazy: Prince and the Making of Purple Rain. "He wasn't always specifically writing about what he was going through, because he also had to be consistent with the Purple Rain storyline, but he was drawing from things that had happened in his life."[4]

Only much later, during a 2015 interview with Ebony magazine, did Prince finally identify who the beautiful one really was: Denise Matthews aka Vanity, his one-time protégé and girlfriend.[4] The pair had met in 1980, with Prince bestowing the stage name Vanity, as he felt looking at her was like looking at the female version of himself. She would go on to inspire some of his biggest early hits. He also created a band around her, Vanity 6, for which he wrote songs and produced.[6]

Personnel

Unless otherwise indicated, credits are from Genius.com[7]

Cover

American singer-songwriter Mariah Carey covered the song for her 1997 album Butterfly as a duet with R&B group, Dru Hill. Carey produced it alongside Cory Rooney.[9]

References
  1. Prince (19 November 2018). "The Beautiful Ones". Prince Vault.
  2. Prince (and The Revolution). "Purple Rain" (Album Notes). Warner Bros. Records. 1984.
  3. "Everybody Want What They Don't Got", Uptown #44 (September 8, 2000). Archived December 4, 2008, at the Wayback Machine Accessed December 22, 2008.
  4. Deriso, Nick. “Prince’s Girlfriend Inspires ‘The Beautiful Ones,’ But Which,” Diffuser (June 22, 2017). Accessed November 29, 2017.
  5. Nilsen, Per. Dance Music Sex Romance: Prince: The First Decade (SAF Publishing Ltd., 1999). ISBN 978-0-946719-64-8
  6. “Secrets Behind Prince’s Last Australian Tour, A Year On From His Death” (April 20, 2017). Accessed November
  7. "The Beautiful Ones". Genius. Retrieved 19 June 2019.
  8. "The Beautiful Ones - Prince (lesson)". YouTube: Son...Ted Talks Bass. 1 November 2018.
  9. Butterfly (Liner Notes). Mariah Carey. Columbia Records. 1997.CS1 maint: others (link)
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