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Eggplant is a song recorded on 7 July 1986 at Prince’s Galpin Blvd Home Studio (on the same day as Train).
Inspiration for this song came from Susannah and Wendy Melvoin, as Prince overheard their conversation about vain girls who constantly flip their hair while having a conversation with someone. The song makes an analogy between a shallow girl and an eggplant, presumably the opposite of an egghead (an intellectual). The song is sung as an advise to a friend. Horns overdubs were done to the second instrumental half of the song.
While the sessions that yielded this song concentrated on material for the aborted musical possibly known as Dream Factory, as well as the aborted Dream Factory album, it is unknown if this song was intended for these or any other project.
Prince initially created a version with only him singing, which Eric Leeds and Atlanta Bliss recorded a horn arrangement for the next day.
Prince then decided he would have Wendy sing lead vocal, as a character named Lucy. Some humorous dialogue between him and Lucy was added, like friends or maybe siblings squabbling.Prince added a short rap over the beginning of the second half, right after the break. The girls added backing vocals there, too, at some point getting the giggles, which Prince left in the song.
The version with only Prince’s vocal (listed as Eggplant (Original Prince Vocal)) was released in September 2020 as the third track of Vault Tracks part 2, one of the discs with previously unreleased tracks included with the Sign O’ The Times Super Deluxe Edition. The version with Wendy on lead vocals remains unreleased.
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