Difference between revisions of "There’s Something I Like About Being Your Fool"

• This track is not believed to have been performed live by Prince

• none

• none

There’s Something I Like About Being Your Fool is a song recorded in late spring 1981 at Prince’s Kiowa Trail Home Studio in Chanhassen, Minnesota. It was worked on further in mid-June 1981, at Hollywood Sound Recorders in Los Angeles, California, and was mixed at Sunset Sound in Hollywood, California, on the first two days of mixing for the Controversy, 14 and 15 August 1981, indicating that it was intended for the album until the last minute.

Prince pulled out the track in 1985 for possible use by Jill Jones, but it is unclear if additional instrumentation or vocals were recorded at this point.

The track was worked on further (or perhaps re-recorded) in early 1987, at Prince’s Galpin Blvd Home Studio in Chanhassen, Minnesota, for use by American blues singer-songwriter Bonnie Raitt, during a short-lived collaboration between the two artists, that was never fully developed. Prince approached her about recording some songs together and signing to his Paisley Park Records label in December 1986 after seeing her perform at The Beverly Theater, Los Angeles, CA, USA. He offered four songs to work on (I Need A Man, Jealous Girl, Promise 2 Be True and There’s Something I Like About Being Your Fool). Eric Leeds recorded saxophone overdubs on 25 January 1987 (four days after recording saxophone overdubs on I Need A Man). Raitt recorded vocals for There’s Something I Like About Being Your Fool in April 1987, at Prince’s Galpin Blvd Home Studio with Susan Rogers overseeing.

No further work was done as Prince was busy preparing for his next tour (Sign O’ The Times Tour). Bonnie Raitt commented on the songs by saying "I appreciated the enthusiasm, but they were not in my key. The topics were not things I was comfortable singing.". Bonnie Raitt also wanted to cut tie with Warner Bros. after the failure of her 1986 album Nine Lives. None of the songs offered by Prince ended up on her 1989 acclaimed album Nick Of Time, released on Capitol Records.

Engineer Don Batts has mentioned that Steve Fargnoli loved the song, and wishes it had been released by Prince. The lyrics deal with an unfaithful woman who crashes the narrator’s car (an idea revisted in Adore), but the narrator is willing to make up with her, "because there’s something I like about being your fool".

Prince’s version of the song was released in 2020 as the seventh track of Vault Tracks part 3, one of the discs with previously unreleased tracks included with the Sign O’ The Times Super Deluxe Edition.

Released version

• Prince - all vocals and instruments, except where noted
• Eric Leeds - saxophone

Unreleased 1981 version

• Prince - all vocals and instruments (assumed)

Unreleased Bonnie Raitt version

• Bonnie Raitt - lead vocals
• Prince - all instruments, except where noted (assumed)
• Eric Leeds - saxophone

• Sign O’ The Times Super Deluxe Edition album

• The released mix of this track was done by Nick Bolas specifically for the Sign O’ The Times Super Deluxe Edition release. It was made to replicate the original mix from the time the song was initially tracked, as much as possible. So even when a slightly different mix of this track might exist, the now released version is not considered a true alternate mix of the track.

• The Vault: The Definitive Guide to the Musical World of Prince (2004)