There was a time, back in the ‘80s, that Prince was writing so many good songs that he could afford to give away surefire hits to other artists.
Arguably the most famous of these was Manic Monday, a song that Prince originally wrote for Apollonia 6, the girl group that he assembled in 1983 and who appeared in Purple Rain. However, it ended up being gifted to the Bangles, who had a number 2 hit with it in 1985.
Famously, the song that kept it off the top of the Billboard Hot 100 was Prince’s Kiss, confirming that, at the time, he was pretty much competing with himself.
Now, in an interview with Guitar World, Bangles lead guitarist and singer Vicki Peterson has been explaining how the Bangles came to record Manic Monday.
It’s been rumoured that Prince offered them the song in a bid to win the affections of guitarist and singer Susanna Hoffs, but Peterson says that he was, first and foremost, a fan of their music.
“He would come to our shows and sit in,” she recalls. “We’d get a note from the tour manager – ‘Prince is here and would love to play with you.’ It was like, ‘What? Here, take my guitar, please!’”
Which led to Prince showing his appreciation for the band in the best way he knew how: by sending them a demo of a song – Manic Monday, in this case, written under the pseudonym ‘Christopher’ – and asking if they’d like it.
Being the creative control freak that he had a reputation for being, though, Prince initially suggested that the Bangles might simply want to take his arrangement, minus the scratch vocal, and sing over the top of it.
“It was very well mapped out,” Peterson remembers. She and her bandmates, however, were keen to put their own stamp on it.
“Normally, people were happy to take his tracks, because he’s Prince. But we wanted to do the song our own way.”
This sounds like a bit of a risk, but it was one that paid off.
“Luckily, Prince liked what we did,” says Peterson. “He came to a rehearsal, listened, gave us the thumbs up and walked out. All in his enigmatic style.”
Happily, we don’t have to wonder how the Bangles’ version differed from Prince’s – his demo is included on the posthumous Originals album from 2019, a collection of songs that Prince ended up giving to other artists.
