Little Red Corvette

Lore & Background

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. 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.

Reader's Guide

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. The lyrics came to him in bits and pieces during this and other catnaps. Eventually, he was able to finish it without sleeping. The song is written in the key of D major and moves at a tempo of 123 beats per minute in common time.

Prince's vocals span from A2 to D7 in the song. The lyrics use car imagery as a double entendre for sex, also making use of horse-related imagery for similar purposes. Jack Hamilton of Slate noted that the song is about "ambivalence, vulnerability, and fear" of casual sex. With its instrumentation of guitars, synthesizers, and a drum machine, Hamilton identifies "Little Red Corvette" as a post-disco song "in every respect."

Cash Box wrote that "a Vangelis-like synth bottom provides the smokey mood, while Prince's vocals traverse from the plaintive to the depraved." 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."

Did You Know?

• "Little Red Corvette" was Prince's second music video played on MTV; the first was "1999" the previous year.
• The music video was directed by Bryan Greenberg and released in February 1983.
• Rolling Stone ranked the song No. 108 on its list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time (2004).
• Dez Dickerson's guitar solo was ranked No. 64 all time by readers of Guitar World.