If I Could Get Your Attention

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If A Girl Answers (Don’t Hang Up)   < < < Non-Prince Songs All Prince Songs Unreleased Songs > > >   If I Love U 2 Nite
If I Could Get Your Attention


from the album Taja Sevelle

artwork for Tidal release
Song details
Performer: Taja Sevelle; Mayte
First Released: 19 September 1987 - Taja Sevelle album
Album(s): Taja Sevelle
Writer(s): Prince and Taja Sevelle (credited to Taja Sevelle)
Producer(s): Prince (credited to Chico Bennett)
Live Appearances
First and last live appearance:
Performed regularly on tour:
  • none
Performed occasionally in shows:

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.

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.


Recording Information
Recording Sessions
Date Studio Additional info
10 May 1986 Sunset Sound - Studio 3,
Hollywood, CA, USA
Tracking, mix, instrumental mix
16 July 1986 (a.m.) Sunset Sound - Studio 3,
Hollywood, CA, USA
Overdubs (possibly Jill Jones lead vocal, possibly Taja Sevelle lead vocal), mix
July-1986 - early-1987 The Enterprise,
Burbank, CA, USA
Possible Taja Sevelle vocal overdubs
Mid-September 1993 Paisley Park Studios,
Chanhassen, MN, USA
Mayte vocal overdubs
Autumn 2014 (assumed) Paisley Park Studios,
Chanhassen, MN, USA
Re-recording
Recording Personnel

Taja Sevelle version

  • Taja Sevelle - vocals
  • Prince - all other instruments, except where noted (uncredited)
  • Greg Porter - guitar


Mayte version

  • Mayte - vocals
  • Prince - all other instruments (assumed)


2014 version


Versions
Released Versions
Title Length Released Version Additional info
If I Could Get Your Attention 3:41 Taja Sevelle Studio Taja Sevelle version
If Eye Could Get Ur Attention 2:43 Tidal download Studio Prince version, 2014 re-recording


Unreleased Versions
Title Version Additional Info
If I Could Get Your Attention (Instrumental) Studio Instrumental Mix
If I Could Get Your Attention Studio Jill Jones version, recorded in May/June '86
If I Could Get Your Attention Studio Mayte version, recorded mid-September 1993, included on Latino Barbie Doll
If Eye Could Get Ur Attention Studio 2014 version with additional horns & strings
 
Additional Information

See also Trivia

  • The song features the infamous Fairlight ORCH5 sample, taken from the 1965 Josef Krips and Philharmonia Orchestra rendition of Igor Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite/ Song of the Nightingale: IV - ‘Infernal Dance of All the Subjects of Kastchei’, also used in Sign O’ The Times, It, Le Grind, 2 Nigs United 4 West Compton, Koo Koo and Ten.

References
If A Girl Answers (Don’t Hang Up)   < < < All Songs Unreleased Songs > > >   If I Love U 2 Nite