Like A Prayer is the first track on Madonna’s fourth album Like A Prayer. It was long thought that the album version contained no Prince input, and only some of the remixes contain Prince’s guitar playing, however in a 2014 interview Patrick Leonard, the song’s producer revealed it’s actually Prince on guitar at the very beginning of the song before the door slams.
The 12-inch containing the versions with a bit more of Prince’s uncredited guitar input were released three weeks prior to the album’s release on Like A Prayer, the album’s first single. The 'Dub Beats' version, remixed by Bill Bottrell, also contains a sample of the studio version of Bob George, five years before its official release.
Furthermore a back masked version of the guitar solo was used as a basis to Act Of Contrition, the eleventh and final track on the Like A Prayer, album, and also released as the b-side of the Like A Prayer, single, three weeks before the album’s release. On Act Of Contrition the credit ‘The Powers That Be’, could be read as to allude to Prince.
Prince’s contribution was recorded in mid-November 1988, at Paisley Park Studios in Chanhassen, Minnesota. It is likely that his solo was recorded by itself (or possibly for use on Like A Prayer), and the track was compiled later.
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Recording Information
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Recording Sessions
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Date
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Studio
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Additional info
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1988
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Johnny Yuma Studios, Burbank, CA, USA
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Tracking (Madonna demo; no Prince input)
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Mid-November 1988
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Paisley Park Studios, Chanhassen, MN, USA
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Guitar solo recording by Prince
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Recording Personnel
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- Madonna - lead vocals, background vocals, additional synthesizer
- Prince - guitar solo (uncredited)
- Jonathan Moffett - drums
- Guy Pratt - bass guitar (on the album version)
- Randy Jackson - bass guitar (on the 7" version)
- The Andrea Crouch Choir - background vocals
- Bruce Gaitsch - guitar
- Chester Kamen - guitar (credited for whole album, specific involvement uncertain)
- Dann Huff - guitar (credited for whole album, specific involvement uncertain)
- David Williams - guitar (credited for whole album, specific involvement uncertain)
- Bruce Gaitsch - acoustic guitar (credited for whole album, specific involvement uncertain)
- Donna DeLory - background vocals (credited for whole album, specific involvement uncertain)
- Niki Haris - background vocals (credited for whole album, specific involvement uncertain)
- Geary Lanier - clavinet (credited for whole album, specific involvement uncertain)
- Paulinho Da Costa - percussion (credited for whole album, specific involvement uncertain)
- Patrick Leonard - acoustic piano, B3 organ, clavinet, synthesizer (credited for whole album, specific involvement uncertain)
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Versions
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Released Versions
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Information is given for Prince-related versions only
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Sampled, Referred to, Quoted in...
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