The old maxim that ‘if it sounds right, it is right’ doesn’t always ring true - particularly if you’re working with a shonky monitoring setup - but there are certainly times when happy accidents can yield great results. Take Prince’s The Ballad of Dorothy Parker - the fourth track on side 1 of the Sign O’The Times album, which was released 33 years ago this week - which is a fine example of a track being recorded ‘wrong’ but sounding very right indeed.
The story goes that, back in 1986, this was the first song that Prince recorded at his new Galpin Blvd Home Studio in Chanhassen, Minnesota. Originally intended for his Dream Factory album - the history of which is a whole other story - Prince also had it in mind as a single, though this never happened.
