If You See Me

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If You See Me

Minneapolisgenius album 1992.jpg
from the album Minneapolis Genius - featuring Prince
Song details
Performer: 94 East
First Released: 30 June 1992 - Minneapolis Genius - featuring Prince album re-issue
Album(s): Minneapolis Genius - Featuring Prince

Symbolic Beginning
The Legends Collection
94 East Featuring Prince
One Man Jam
If You Feel Like Dancin'
The Cookhouse Five

Writer(s): Pepé Willie
Producer(s): Pepé Willie and Tony Silvester
Live Appearances
First and last live appearance:
  • This track is not believed to have been performed live by Prince.
Performed regularly on tour:
  • none
Performed occasionally in shows:
  • none

If You See Me (a.k.a. Do Yourself A Favor) was first released without Prince input as Do Yourself A Favor, by Jesse Johnson (on Shockadelica, 1986), but the first release containing input by Prince, recorded much earlier, was in two versions (instrumental and vocal) on a 1992 reissue of 94 East's first collection of studio recordings Minneapolis Genius, featuring Prince on guitar.

The track has featured on every subsequent collection of 94 East's early recordings. In 1995 both versions were included on Symbolic Beginning (re-released in 1999 as The Legends Collection). In 2000 the vocal version was included as the seventh track on 94 East Featuring Prince.

Also in 2000, both versions were included on One Man Jam. In 2002, both versions were included on If You Feel Like Dancin'. In 2011, a remixed version by Matt "Dr." Fink was included as the second track on the digital collection The Cookhouse Five.

Basic tracking took place on 4 December 1975, at Cookhouse Studios, Minneapolis, Minnesota (during the same set of sessions as Games, I'll Always Love You, If We Don't and Better Than You Think), marking the earliest recording sessions featuring Prince to have been released.

Pepé Willie later recounted that Prince was unhappy with his guitar playing at one part of the track and asked the next day if he could re-record a section of his part; Willie arranged with the studio for this to happen while Willie himself played golf. Due to a change in the recording equipment's EQ levels (which had been changed for another artist's recording session), Prince's re-recorded guitar segment is audibly different than his guitar on the rest of the track.

Matt "Dr." Fink remixed the track in June 2010, at StarVu Studios, Minneapolis, Minnesota, along with the other Cookhouse Studios tracks from the same session.

In 1982, Prince recorded an entirely new version of the track at his at Kiowa Trail Home Studio in Chanhassen, Minnesota, titled Do Yourself A Favor; according to Pepé Willie, Prince recorded it from memory and had not heard it for years.

Jesse Johnson released a similar version, also titled Do Yourself A Favor, on his album Shockadelica, in 1986, but it misses Prince's own lyrical contribution to the track, a humorous spoken section in his "Jamie Starr" voice, so his version is not considered to have any input by Prince.

Prince's own version of Do Yourself A Favor remains unreleased.


Recording Information
Recording Sessions
Date Studio Additional info
4 December 1975 Cookhouse Studios, Minneapolis, Minnesota Basic tracking (94 East version)
Early December 1975 (assumed) Cookhouse Studios, Minneapolis, Minnesota Additional guitar recording by Prince
1982 Kiowa Trail Home Studio, Chanhassen, MN, USA Re-recording (Prince version, as Do Yourself A Favor)
June 2010 StarVu Studios, Minneapolis, Minnesota Remix of 94 East version by Matt "Dr." Fink
Recording Personnel

94 East version

  • Pepé Willie - vocals and guitar
  • Dale Alexander - drums
  • Wendell Thomas - bass guitar
  • Prince - guitar
  • Marcy Ingvoldstad - vocals
  • Kristie Lazenberry - vocals


Unreleased Prince version

  • Prince - all vocals and instruments (assumed)

Versions
Released Versions
Title Length Released Version Additional info
If You See Me 4:09 If You See Me (single) Studio additional info needed
If You See Me 5:40 Minneapolis Genius - Featuring Prince

Symbolic Beginning
The Legends Collection
94 East Featuring Prince
One Man Jam
If You Feel Like Dancin'

Studio a.k.a. If You See Me (Vocal)
If You See Me (Instr.) 5:40 Minneapolis Genius - Featuring Prince

Symbolic Beginning
The Legends Collection
One Man Jam
If You Feel Like Dancin'

Instrumental a.k.a. If You See Me (Instrumental Version)
If You See Me 5:40 The Cookhouse Five Remix Remix by Matt "Dr." Fink


Unreleased Versions
Title Version Additional Info
If You See Me Studio Initial 1975 recording before Prince's additional guitar overdubs
Do Yourself A Favor Studio 1982 re-recording by Prince
 
Additional Information

See also Trivia

  • This track, recorded in December 1975, marks a part of the earliest-recorded sessions featuring Prince to have been released.

References
If You Feel Like Dancin'   < < < All Songs Unreleased Songs > > >   In The Name Of Love