The making Of... 1999 by Prince
EVEN for an artist renowned for his spontaneous creativity, to find inspiration in a cheesy TV special on the predictions of Nostradamus seems almost too far-fetched. Yet this is indeed how one of Prince’s signature songs sparked into life. As he later recalled: “We were sitting around watching a [TV] special about 1999, and a lot of people were talking about the year and speculating on what was going to happen. I just found it real ironic how everyone that was around me whom I thought to be very optimistic people were dreading those days… I just wanted to write something that gave hope.”
The result was a burst of joyously apocalyptic pop-funk that covered all bases. With its slickly insistent groove, bubblegum pop chorus, and lyrics that alchemised cold war anxiety into a gleeful exhortation to seize the day, “1999” marked the moment when Prince went mainstream. Having been recently wounded by the ridicule he received from a rock crowd when supporting The Rolling Stones in October 1981, he set about consciously crafting a song to unite black and white audiences.
“This was a completely new direction,” says co-vocalist Jill Jones. “It wasn’t purely on an R&B road, it slid into pop. He had moved more into this crossover.” Yet, as drummer Bobby Z notes, “he uses
