Little Red Corvette

"Little Red Corvette" is a song by American recording artist Prince. The song combines a drum machine beat and slow synth buildup for the verses and a full rock chorus. Backing vocals were performed by Dez Dickerson and Lisa Coleman and the guitar solo was also played by Dickerson. In the song, Prince narrates a one-night stand with a beautiful but promiscuous woman (the "Little Red Corvette" of the title); although he enjoys the experience, he urges her to "slow down" and "find a love that's gonna last" before she destroys herself.  In addition to the title, he uses several other automobile metaphors, for example comparing their lovemaking to a ride in a limousine.

Released as a single from the album 1999 in 1983, the song was his biggest hit at the time, and his first to reach the top 10 in the US, peaking at number 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. It was also his first single to perform better on the pop chart than the R&B chart. The single was released with another 1999 track, "Let's Pretend We're Married". Following Prince's death in April 2016, the song re-charted on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart at number 29. It rose to number 20 one week later. It has sold 1.08 million digital copies in the United States.

A 12" dance remix of the song was released to accompany the single, and it continues where the album version fades out. The US single was originally released with the album track "All the Critics Love U in New York" as the B-side, while in the UK two separate single releases had it backed with "Lady Cab Driver" or "Horny Toad". Separate UK 12" releases had the song paired with "Automatic" and "International Lover", or "Horny Toad" and "D.M.S.R.". Later, it was released as a double A-side with "1999", thus peaking at number two in the UK in January 1985. On Prince's 2006 compilation album, Ultimate, the dance remix of "Little Red Corvette" was a featured track.

Composition 
"Little Red Corvette" 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 B2 to C7 in the song. The lyrics use car imagery as a double entendre for sex  also making use of horse-related imagery for similar purposes.  Slate has noted that the song is about "ambivalence, vulnerability, and fear" of casual sex.  With the site also noting that the lyrics possess post-disco themes, stating "Disco lived by the myth that Saturday night never ends. "Little Red Corvette" not only insists that it does, it reminds us that a lot of what took place in the darkened corners of clubs and alleys was shadowy, fumbling, detached, or often worse."

Music video
"Little Red Corvette" (directed by Bryan Greenberg and released in February 1983) was  Prince's second music video played on MTV. The first was "1999" the previous year before Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean" and after Musical Youth's "Pass the Dutchie".

Origins
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.

Awards and accolades
 Rolling Stone ranked the song #108 on its list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
 The guitar solo, played by band member Dez Dickerson, was ranked #64 by the readers of Guitar World as one of the 100 best guitar solos of all time.
 The song is ranked as the 181st greatest song of all time as well as the third best song of 1982, by Acclaimed Music.

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

References

 Uptown: The Vault – The Definitive Guide to the Musical World of Prince: Nilsen Publishing 2004,

External links
 

Category:1982 songs
Category:1983 singles
Category:Prince (musician) songs
Category:Song recordings produced by Prince (musician)
Category:Songs about cars
Category:Songs about casual sex
Category:Songs with double entendres
Category:Songs written by Prince (musician)
Category:Warner Records singles