I Need A Man

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I Need A Man

Sign O’ The Times Super Deluxe
from the album
Sign O’ The Times Super Deluxe
Song details
Performer: Prince; The Hookers; Bonnie Raitt
First Released: 17 September 2020 - Sign O’ The Times Super Deluxe pre-release download
Album(s): Sign O’ The Times Super Deluxe
Writer(s): Prince
Producer(s): Prince
Live Appearances
First and last live appearance:
  • This track is not believed to have been performed live by Prince, although the horn line of the track originated in 1986 live performances of Controversy
Performed regularly on tour:
  • none
Performed occasionally in shows:
  • none

I Need A Man is a track released posthumously on the Sign O’ The Times Super Deluxe set. A week earlier, it was released as the album's sixth and final pre-release download.

While the released version is from 1986 (with overdubs in 1987), the song was originally recorded in Summer 1981 at Prince's Kiowa Trail Home Studio in Chanhassen, Minnesota (during the same set of sessions that produced Make-Up, Wet Dream and Drive Me Wild). The track contained lead vocals by Jamie Shoop, and was intended for an album by The Hookers, but was abandoned when The Hookers developed into Vanity 6.

The track was worked on further (or perhaps re-recorded) in late 1986 or early 1987, at Prince's Galpin Blvd Home Studio in Chanhassen, Minnesota. Eric Leeds recorded saxophone overdubs on 21 January 1987 (the same day Madhouse's first album 8 was released, four days before saxophone overdubs on There's Something I Like About Being Your Fool). New lead vocals were recorded by American blues singer-songwriter Bonnie Raitt in April 1987, during a short-lived collaboration between the two artists. Although Prince offered four songs to Bonnie Raitt (I Need A Man, Jealous Girl, Promise To Be True and There's Something I Like About Being Your Fool), it is unclear whether this collaboration was intended to lead to an album or to a particular project.

Prince worked on the track again, possibly re-recording it entirely, on 31 May 1988, at Paisley Park Studios in Chanhassen, Minnesota. The released version is the 1987 recording with Prince's vocals, however.


Recording Information
Recording Sessions
Date Studio Additional info
1981 (assumed) Kiowa Trail Home Studio,
Chanhassen, MN, USA
Basic tracking ( The Hookers version)
Late '86/Early 1987 Galpin Blvd Home Studio,
Chanhassen, MN, USA
Basic tracking of new version
21 January 1987 Galpin Blvd Home Studio,
Chanhassen, MN, USA
Saxophone overdubs by Eric Leeds
April 1987 Galpin Blvd Home Studio,
Chanhassen, MN, USA
vocal overdubs by Bonnie Raitt
31 May 1988 Paisley Park Studios,
Chanhassen, MN, USA
Additional recording or re-recording
Recording Personnel

The Hookers version

Bonnie Raitt version

Unreleased 1988 version

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


Versions
Released Versions
Title Length Released Version Additional info
I Need A Man Sign O’ The Times Super Deluxe Studio 1986/1987 recording; see notes above


Unreleased Versions
Title Version Additional Info
I Need A Man Studio Recorded 1981; The Hookers version
I Need A Man Studio Recorded 1986/1987; before saxophone overdubs
I Need A Man Studio 1987 version with Bonnie Raitt vocal overdubs
I Need A Man Studio Recorded 1988; Prince version (assumed)
 
Additional Information

See also Trivia


References
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