Little Red Corvette

"Little Red Corvette" is a song by American recording artist Prince. The song combines a Linn LM-1 beat and slow synth buildup with a rock chorus, over which Prince, using several automobile metaphors, recalls a one-night stand with a beautiful promiscuous woman. Backing vocals were performed by Lisa Coleman and Dez Dickerson; Dickerson also performs a guitar solo on the song.

"Little Red Corvette"
US 7" single (1983)
Single by Prince
from the album 1999
B-side	"All the Critics Love U in New York"
Released	February 9, 1983[1]
Recorded	May 20, 1982 (basic tracking) August 11–12, 1982 (mixing)[2]
Studio	Kiowa Trail Home Studio (basic tracking), Sunset Sound (mixing)
Genre	Pop[3] post-disco[4] funk[5][6] rock[5][7] dance-rock[8]
Length	5:02 (album version) 3:08 (single version) 8:27 (dance remix)
Label	Warner Bros.
Songwriter(s)	Prince
Producer(s)	Prince
Prince singles chronology
"1999" (1982) "Little Red Corvette" (1983) "Delirious" (1983)
Music video
"Little Red Corvette" on YouTube

Released in 1983 as the second single from 1999, the song was, at that point, Prince's highest charting and his first to reach the top 10 in the U.S., peaking at number 6 on the Billboard Hot 100. It was also his first single to perform better on the pop chart than the R&B chart. Later, it was rereleased as a double A-side with "1999", peaking at number two on the UK Singles Chart in January 1985. Following Prince's death in April 2016, "Little Red Corvette" re-charted on the Billboard Hot 100 at number 29, rising to number 20 the following week. It has sold more than 900,000 copies in the United States.^[9]

The initial US single was backed with album track "All the Critics Love U in New York", while UK releases featured "Lady Cab Driver" or "Horny Toad". An extended dance remix of "Little Red Corvette," featured on some 12" releases, was later featured on the 2006 compilation Ultimate.

Origins

Prince got the idea for the song when he dozed off in band member Lisa Coleman's 1964 pink Mercury Montclair Marauder after an exhausting all-night recording session.^[10] The lyrics came to him in bits and pieces during this and other catnaps. Eventually, he was able to finish it without sleeping.^[11]

Composition

"Little Red Corvette" is written in the key of D♭ major^[12] and moves at a tempo of 123 beats per minute in common time. Prince's vocals span from A♭₂ to D♭₇ in the song.^[13] The lyrics use car imagery as a double entendre for sex,^[14] also making use of horse-related imagery for similar purposes.^[5]

Jack Hamilton of Slate noted that the song is about "ambivalence, vulnerability, and fear" of casual sex. "It’s not about sex as fun...but rather about the entirety of the act: its physical, emotional, psychological, even spiritual dimensions. And uniquely, 'Little Red Corvette' isn’t really about anything other than sex."^[4] With its instrumentation of guitars, synthesizers, and a drum machine, Hamilton identifies "Little Red Corvette" as a post-disco song "in every respect."^[4]

Critical reception

Cash Box wrote that "a Vangelis-like synth bottom provides the smokey mood, while Prince’s vocals traverse from the plaintive to the depraved."^[15] Billboard called it "a typically racy rock number, thick with electronics" and wrote that Prince's urgent vocal performance "makes even the more innocent lyrics sound illicit."^[16]

Music video

"Little Red Corvette" (directed by Bryan Greenberg and released in February 1983) was Prince's second music video played on MTV. The first was "1999" the previous year before Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean" and after Musical Youth's "Pass the Dutchie".^[17] The video was filmed in late January 1983 at the Lakeland Civic Center during the final week of rehearsals for the second leg of the 1999 Tour.^[18]

Awards and accolades

• Rolling Stone ranked the song #108 on its list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time (2004).
• Dickerson's guitar solo was ranked #64 all time by readers of Guitar World.

Personnel

Credits sourced from Guitarcloud and Benoît Clerc^[19][20]

• Prince – lead and backing vocals; electric guitar; bass guitar; Oberheim synthesizers; Linn LM-1; Pearl SY-1 Syncussion
• Dez Dickerson – electric guitar solo; backing vocals
• Lisa Coleman – backing vocals

Charts

Weekly charts 1983 weekly chart performance for "Little Red Corvette" Chart (1983) Peak position Australia (Kent Music Report)[21] 8 Canadian Singles Chart[22] 11 New Zealand (Recorded Music NZ)[23] 12 UK Singles (OCC)[24] 7 US Billboard [25] 6 US Billboard Hot R&B Singles[26] 28 US Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks[27] 17 2016 weekly chart performance for "Little Red Corvette" Chart (2016) Peak position US Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs[26] 11 US Billboard Hot Rock Songs[26] 4

Year-end charts 1983 year-end chart performance for "Little Red Corvette" Chart (1983) Position Australia (Kent Music Report)[28] 78 Canada Top Singles (RPM)[29] 75 US Top Pop Singles (Billboard)[30] 25 2016 year-end chart performance for "Little Red Corvette" Chart (2016) Position US Hot Rock Songs (Billboard)[31] 32

Certifications

Certifications for "Little Red Corvette"

Region	Certification	Certified units/sales
United Kingdom (BPI)[32]	Silver	200,000‡
‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.

References

1. Uptown, 2004, p.41
2. Tudahl, Duane. 1983 and 1984 (Purple Rain era studio sessions), Rowman et Littlefield, 2018.pp 4-5.
3. Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Prince – 1999". AllMusic. Retrieved January 27, 2017.
4. Hamilton, Jack (21 April 2016). "Prince Was Our Bard of One-Night Stands, and "Little Red Corvette" Was His Masterpiece". Slate.com. Retrieved 14 February 2017.
5. "500 Greatest Songs of All Time". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 14 February 2017.
6. "100 Greatest Funk Songs". Digital Dream Door. August 7, 2008. Archived from the original on September 25, 2010. Retrieved October 7, 2021.
7. Matos, Michaelangelo (8 December 2020). "WPLJ-FM, New York City: August 7, 1983". Can't Slow Down: How 1984 Became Pop's Blockbuster Year. Hachette Books. p. 5. ISBN 978-0-306-90337-3.
8. Marsh, Dave (1989). The Heart of Rock & Soul: The 1001 Greatest Singles Ever Made. Plume. p. 35. ISBN 0-452-26305-0.
9. "Hip Hop Single Sales: Prince, Desiigner & Drake". HipHopDX. April 30, 2016. Retrieved April 30, 2016.
10. Torchinsky, Jason (2016-04-24). "Everybody Was Wrong About the Car That Inspired Prince's 'Little Red Corvette'". Jalopnik. Gawker Media. Retrieved 2016-04-25.
11. Leeds, Alan (1993). CD insert booklet. Prince The Hits 2.
12. "Little Red Corvette by Prince @ Song Key Finder". www.songkeyfinder.com. Retrieved 2016-04-23.
13. Prince (31 August 2010). "Prince "Little Red Corvette" Sheet Music in Db Major (transposable) - Download & Print". Musicnotes.com. Retrieved 2016-04-23.
14. "25 Essential Prince Songs". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 14 February 2017.
15. "Reviews" (PDF). Cash Box. February 19, 1983. p. 10. Retrieved 2022-07-17.
16. "Top Single Picks". Billboard. February 26, 1983. p. 55. Retrieved 2023-02-08.
17. Buckley, Peter (2003). The Rough Guide to Rock. Rough Guides Ltd. p. 819. ISBN 978-1-84353-105-0.
18. "Video: Little Red Corvette". Prince Vault.
19. "1999". guitarcloud.org. Retrieved 2023-04-12.
20. Clerc, Benoît (October 2022). Prince: All the Songs. Octopus. ISBN 9781784728816.
21. Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992 (Illustrated ed.). St Ives, NSW: Australian Chart Book. p. 239. ISBN 0-646-11917-6. N.B. The Kent Report chart was licensed by ARIA from mid-1983 until June 12, 1988.
22. Lwin, Nanda. Top 40 Hits: The Essential Chart Guide 2000
23. "Prince – Little Red Corvette". Top 40 Singles. Retrieved August 4, 2023.
24. "Official Singles Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved August 4, 2023.
25. "Billboard Hot 100™". Billboard. May 28, 1983. Retrieved October 8, 2023.
26. Trust, Gary; Caulfield, Keith (April 25, 2016). "Prince's 'Purple Rain' Is the Week's Top-Selling Song, as 6 of His Classics Re-Enter Hot 100". Billboard. Retrieved April 25, 2016.
27. "Prince Chart History: Mainstream Rock". Billboard. Retrieved August 4, 2023.
28. "Kent Music Report – National Top 100 Singles for 1983". Kent Music Report. Retrieved August 5, 2020 – via Imgur.com.
29. "Top RPM Singles: Issue 6699." RPM. Library and Archives Canada. Retrieved December 11, 2024.
30. "Talent Almanac 1984: Top Pop Singles". Billboard. Vol. 95, no. 52. December 24, 1983. p. TA-18.
31. "Hot Rock Songs – Year-End 2016". Billboard. Retrieved May 28, 2020.
32. "British single certifications – Prince – Little Red Corvette". British Phonographic Industry. Retrieved 1 July 2022.

External links

• "Little Red Corvette" at Discogs (list of releases)
• Uptown: The Vault – The Definitive Guide to the Musical World of Prince: Nilsen Publishing 2004, ISBN 91-631-5482-X