“Little Red Corvette” by Prince

"Little Red Corvette" was the second single from 1999, Prince's 1982 album, and it's the record that finally pulled him into the American top 10. He wrote, arranged and produced it, and played nearly everything himself: drum machine, synths, bass and guitar, with Peggy McCreary recording and mixing.

It starts as a slow, ticking crawl, a Linn LM-1 pulse and synths creeping upward, then bursts into a full rock chorus. Over the top Prince runs a string of car metaphors to tell the story of a one-night stand with a woman who has clearly been around the block. Lisa Coleman and Dez Dickerson sing backup, and Dickerson steps out for the guitar solo. It was also his first single to do better on the pop chart than on the R&B one.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.