Jughead is the ninth track on Prince’s 13th album Diamonds And Pearls, the first album to be credited to Prince and the New Power Generation.
Basic tracking took place on 11 September 1990 at Paisley Park Studios in Chanhassen, Minnesota (during the same session as Fancy Dancer, The Flow and a reworked version of Something Funky (This House Comes)) within hours of returning to the USA from the Nude Tour in Japan. Kirk Johnson and Tony M. share co-writing credit as the track includes a rap from a song initially known as Money Matters by the group M.P.L.S. (unrelated to Prince’s 1993-4 group Minneapolis), a.k.a. Split Level, which featured Tony M., Kirk Johnson and Damon Dickson. In December 1989 however, it was performed by M.P.L.S. in a KMOJ Holiday show as Jughead. The track was not included on the December 1990, configuration of Diamonds And Pearls, but was included as the ninth track on the 1 March 1991 and 8 May 1991 configurations, where it remained for release.
It is likely the title "Jughead" is a reference to the distinctive-looking Archie Comics character Jughead Jones.
The 1991 track Last Dance uses some of the same basic tracks and elements as Jughead, although it is distinct enough to be considered its own track (just as Violet The Organ Grinder was based on Gett Off, for example). See Last Dance for details of that track.
In December 1991, Steve Fargnoli, Prince’s former manager, sued Prince, stating that the spoken word message about managers included at the end of Jughead was about him, and broke their non-disclosure agreement. The defamation and breach-of-contract suit demanded $5 million in damages.
|