Songoftheday 9/22/14 - Act your age not your shoe size, maybe we can do the twirl....

Prince & The Revolution - "Kiss"
from the album Parade (1986)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #1 (two weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 13

Today's Song of the Day is by the Minneapolis musician that bridged the gap between funk and rock and along with Michael Jackson paved the way for African-American artists on MTV. Prince had followed up the biggest moment in his recording career, the movie and soundtrack to his opus Purple Rain, with the psychedelic pop experiment of Around The World in a Day, which scored the "Purple One" two top-10 hits with "Raspberry Beret" and "Pop Life". The following year, Prince went back to the movies, filming a second movie named Under The Cherry Moon. Despite his critical success with Purple Rain, this second movie was a complete departure, with the artist directing himself (after disputes with music video queen Mary Lambert led her to quit), and music being downplayed in the film. Under The Cherry Moon ended up tanking both with moviegoers and critics, scoring a handful of "Golden Raspberry" awards (no pun intended), but the companion music album did signal a return to form for Prince, with a loose funk/rock groove throughout that brought radio back. The first released single from the project, "Kiss", was like Purple Rain's "When Doves Cry" an sparse, rhythm guitar-driven song with no bass and lots of room for him to wail and inprovise James Brown-style on this slinky sexual-without-mentioning-how song. Originally meant for one of his mentoring bands, Mazerati, he claimed it back for himself...

"Kiss" became Prince's third #1 pop hit in America in April of 1986. The single also went to the top of both the R&B and Dance Club Play lists in Billboard magazine. Internationally, the single was a smash, reaching the top-10 in Canada, the UK, Germany, Austria, Holland, Sweden, Australia, and New Zealand.

Despite the movie being panned, Prince's music made up for it, landing him a Grammy award for best R&B performance from a duo or group. And it remains one of his most loved songs still, probably for it's directness and pure fun.

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The "extended mix" 12" version of "Kiss" that topped the dance club charts added horns and a bassline after the original jam, along with a hilarious dialogue between him and backup singer Jill Jones...


Kiss [Extended Version] from PRINCE on Myspace.


While Prince's version was a hit around the world, a British industrial dance act named Age Of Chance scored a minor hit in the UK with their version that went to #50 on the singles chart (and #1 on the indie chart there)...

British experimental dance/pop act the Art of Noise recorded a cover of "Kiss" in 1988, with vet Welsh pop singer Tom Jones lending a hand with his over-the-top reading of the lyrics, and sent the single back into the top-40 at #31...

Alicia Keys, No Doubt's Gwen Stefani, and rapper Missy Elliott performed "Kiss" on the 2004 BRIT Awards show..

 In 2011, Glee took on "Kiss" on one of it's episodes with Gwyneth Paltrow, and it makes the Tom Jones version sound like roots rock in comparison. Nevertheless the single made it to #83 on the Hot 100...

 More recently, Maroon 5 included a swingin' version of the song in their expanded edition of their Overexposed album...

 Up tomorrow: a suave Brit is hooked on romance.