Hardrocklover is the eighth track on Prince's 38th album Hitnrun Phase One. Ten weeks before the album's release, Hardrocklover was released as the album's second single (although no album was announced at the time of the single's release, and when the album was announced Hardrocklover was retroactively called the album's lead-off single, as Fallinlove2nite had been over a year earlier).
The song was first made available to stream on the Prince3EG Soundcloud account the week before, and was added to Tidal before the single release.
While specific recording dates are not known, a BBC interview with Joshua Welton seemed to confirm that Hardrocklover was recorded in late June 2015, very shortly before its release, at Paisley Park Studios in Chanhassen, Minnesota (on the same day as June). When discussing the track, Welton is quoted as saying:
- Prince said to me: "I need something that starts off quiet, and then I just want it to erupt and then I want you to go back… like this roller coaster". And so I said, "ok, cool".
- So Hardrocklover was done literally almost as soon as it came out. Actually, that and the last song on the album were made literally in the same hour.
The track title may have been inspired by the track Hard Rock Lover from the Mother's Finest album Another Mother Further (the phrase "anotha motha furtha" was included on Funknroll, and the album also includes Baby Love, which was released as a live version by Prince on Indigo Nights.
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