Songoftheday 1/22/13 - I was dreamin' when I wrote this forgive me if it goes astray, but when I woke up this mornin' coulda sworn it was judgment day...

Prince - "1999"
from the album 1999 (1982)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #12 (two weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 10 (in 1983), 1 (in 1999)

Today's Song of the Day is by Minneapolis music legend Prince, who had scored his first top-10 pop hit in the spring of 1983 with "Little Red Corvette". That song was the second single released from his fifth studio album, 1999. The first was the title track, which came out in the fall of 1982 and peaked just under the top-40 at #44, while at the time going to #1 on the Billboard Dance chart. After the success of "Corvette", the single was re-released to radio, and zoomed back up both the pop and R&B charts...

The renewed song went to the top-20 on the pop chart, and also peaked at #4 on the R&B format chart.It also reached #2 in the UK and Australia, and top-10 in Canada and New Zealand. In 1999, renewed airplay and sales of the singles made it return back to the top-40 in America, and still no matter the year, it remains a New Years Eve playlist staple.

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Just like Stevie Nicks semi-cribbed Prince's "Little Red Corvette" for her "Stand Back", many say Phil Collins did the same to this song for his "Sussudio" (though this song itself it a copy of the power-chords of the Mamas and the Papas' "Monday Monday")...

in 1992, Clash side-project Big Audio Dynamite II covered the song in concert...

In 1999 electro-pop pioneer Gary Numan recorded the song...

Up tomorrow: Virgin Brides.