You’re All I Want (a.k.a. U’re All I Want) is a song recorded on 11 January 1982 at Sunset Sound in Hollywood, California (the same day as Gigolos Get Lonely Too, a day before Bold Generation). In a 2019 interview, engineer Peggy McCreary talked to Jon Bream about the recording session:
- Usually dressed in his customarily stylish manner, Prince showed up this time with a completely different look: bluejeans, white T-shirt, black leather motorcycle jacket, black leather boots.
- He cut a rockabilly song called “You’re All I Want.”
- “It made sense because of the way he was dressed,” McCreary said. “After working 12 hours, I made him a cassette. He was standing at the door and he tossed me the cassette and said, 'Happy birthday.' ”
- He gave her his jacket, too.
- “I have an unreleased Prince song,” she said. “For him, that was one of the greatest gifts he could have ever given me. At the time, I wanted my birthday off.
- “That was him.”’'
The track contains elements that Prince would later revert to in Delirious, which uses a similar bassline, and Horny Toad, where the lead synth line is not unlike the repeated rockabilly motif of You’re All I Want.
In a session, likely at at a later date, Prince updated his vocal to sing the song in falsetto and vocalize along with the melody line. He also had his (girl)friend Kim Upsher record lead vocals on the song. The song’s initial recording date and overdub date possibly fall before Vanity was considered for the girl group The Hookers that he was developing ideas for, and ultimately became Vanity 6. So the fact he had Kim Upsher record vocals for it might indicate Prince considered using it for The Hookers.
In July 1989 Prince gave the song to Eric Leeds (along with Evolsidog, My Summertime Thang, Pickle, U Should Be Mine, Wet Dream Cousin, Vibrator, The Max and XYZ) when considering songs for a new Madhouse album (later called 26, which later evolved into Eric Leeds’ solo album Times Squared).
Eric Leeds later added saxophone overdubs on 12 May 1991 (two days after Gett Off was recorded, on the same day as Blue Light), and the song was copyrighted (retitled U’re All I Want) on 17 June 1991; it is likely that this version was instrumental.
In 2000, it was listed (as U’re All Eye Want) as one of 22 tracks Prince: A Celebration attendees could vote on for inclusion in the Crystal Ball Volume II release, and was chosen as one of the 17 final selections. It is unknown if the version intended for inclusion was the original 1982 recording or the 1991 version (or even an unknown different recording). The project was ultimately abandoned, however, and the track remained unreleased until the overdubbed 1982 recording was released in 2019 as the tenth track on the Vault Tracks part 1 disc of a Super Deluxe Edition edition of the 1999 album.
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