Do Yourself A Favor

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Do Yourself A Favor (a.k.a. If You See Me)

1999 Deluxe.jpg
from the album 1999 Deluxe
Minneapolisgenius album 1992.jpg
from the album Minneapolis Genius - featuring Prince
Song details
Performer: Prince / 94 East
First Released: 30 June 1992 - Minneapolis Genius - featuring Prince album re-issue (If You see Me)
Album(s): Minneapolis Genius - Featuring Prince (If You see Me)

Symbolic Beginning (If You see Me)
The Legends Collection (If You see Me)
94 East Featuring Prince (If You see Me)
One Man Jam (If You see Me)
If You Feel Like Dancin' (If You see Me)
The Cookhouse Five (If You see Me)
1999 Deluxe

Writer(s): Pepé Willie

(credited to Pepé Willie and Jesse Johnson on Shockadelica and 1999 Deluxe)

Producer(s): Pepé Willie and Tony Silvester (94 East versions)

Prince (1999 Deluxe version)

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

Do Yourself A Favor (a.k.a. If You See Me) was first released without Prince input by Jesse Johnson (on Shockadelica in 1986), but the first release containing input by Prince, recorded much earlier as If You See Me, 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. Prince's 1982 version of Do Yourself A Favor was released in 2019 as the eighth track on the Vault Tracks part 2 disc of a Deluxe edition of the 1999 album.

94 East's version was included on various collections of this band's early recordings. In 1995 the vocal and the instrumental 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 of If You See Me were included on One Man Jam and on If You Feel Like Dancin' in 2002. In 2011, a remixed version by Matt "Dr." Fink was included as the second track on the digital collection The Cookhouse Five.

Basic tracking of If You See Me 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.

Somewhere during the summer of 1982, Prince recorded an entirely new version of the track at his Kiowa Trail Home Studio in Chanhassen, Minnesota, now 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 version, clearly inspired by Prince's 1982 take, 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. The song is credited to Pepé Willie and Jesse Johnson, but Johnson's contribution is unknown (If You See Me is credited to Pepé Willie only).

Prince's 1982 version of Do Yourself A Favor was released in 2019 on the Deluxe edition of the 1999 album. Oddly, the credits on 1999 Deluxe are shared by Pepé Willie and Jesse Johnson, and Prince's lyrical contribution are not acknowledged.


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

If You See Me / 94 East version

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


Do Yourself A Favor

  • 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
Do Yourself A Favor 9:01 1999 Deluxe
Studio 1982 solo Prince re-recording


Unreleased Versions
Title Version Additional Info
If You See Me Studio Initial 1975 recording before Prince's additional guitar overdubs
 
Additional Information

See also Trivia

  • This track (as If You See Me), recorded in December 1975, marks a part of the earliest-recorded sessions featuring Prince to have been released.

References
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