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If I Could Get Your Attention (a.k.a. If Eye Could Get Ur Attention) is the sixth track on Taja Sevelle’s first album Taja Sevelle.
The track was written by Prince, although credited to Taja Sevelle, who wrote the third verse, and was produced by Prince (although credited to the album’s main producer, Chico Bennett).
In November 2015, a re-recording of the track by Prince (now titled If Eye Could Get Ur Attention) was available to stream as Tidal’s Purple Pick of the Week. A few weeks later, on 3 December 2015, Tidal opened a download store which included If Eye Could Get Ur Attention among many other previously-streamed tracks by Prince (including Stare, Stones (by The Golden Hippie) and Pretzelbodylogic Reloaded, along with the updated version of the album The Chocolate Invasion).
Basic tracking of the original version (with Prince on vocals) took place on 10 May 1986, at Sunset Sound in Hollywood, California (four days after recording incidental music for Under The Cherry Moon, on the same day as Frustration, the day before Boy U Bad and It). Recording dates and studio information for Taja Sevelle’s vocal overdubs are not known.
In mid-September 1993, the song was tried out during early sessions for Mayte’s first album at Paisley Park Studios in Chanhassen, Minnesota, and was included as the fifth track on an early version of the album, which was titled Latino Barbie Doll at the time. The track was removed when the album evolved into Child Of The Sun, however. The song may have been considered for inclusion on Scorpio, an enhanced reissue of Child Of The Sun in 1998, which was scrapped.
A re-recording of the track with Prince on lead vocals (now titled If Eye Could Get Ur Attention), which was believed to have been recorded in Autumn, 2014, at Paisley Park Studios (during sessions for the Judith Hill album Back In Time), was premiered over the PA prior to an unannounced Prince show at Paisley Park Studios on 16 November 2014 (a.m.) (along with Revelation, X’s Face, a new recording of A 1,000 Hugs And Kisses, Ain’t About 2 Stop and a remix of Pretzelbodylogic), following a show by FKA twigs in a different room.
A 21-second snippet of the same recording was made available almost a year later on Prince’s Soundcloud account on 4 November 2015, five days before the full track was made available on Tidal.
It had been speculated that this new recording was intended for inclusion on Hitnrun Phase Two, but was not included on that release.
Between 2013 and 2015, Prince engaged in a collaborative process with actress and singer Kat Graham. The project, her second album ultimately released as Love Music Funk Magic in June 2017, includes a cover of If Eye Could Get Ur Attention. In interviews conducted in conjunction with the album’s release, Graham highlighted Prince’s integral role in shaping both the creative and production processes. She recounted the initiation of their collaboration: "On my birthday (in September 2013), he said he wanted to work with me, and I wound up going down to Paisley Park… we started working on a few different records." Graham also emphasized the singularity of Prince’s involvement, noting that: "For the past three years, he was probably the only other producer besides Kenny (Babyface) that I had brought into this process." Although Prince’s mentorship and artistic vision shaped the sound and direction of the album, the specific songs or recordings on which he worked with Graham have never been publicly identified, and it is not known how much of his input made it into the final versions released after his passing on Love Music Funk Magic. He may have been involved in the cover of If Eye Could Get Ur Attention, which he re-recorded around the time he worked with her, but this has not been confirmed (and therefore, not listed below). Love Music Funk Magic was released digitally only, but her version of If Eye Could Get Ur Attention was removed from platforms a few months later for unknown reasons.
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