People Pleaser is the second track on Andy Allo’s second album Superconductor (her first on NPG Records), and People Pleaser was released as a digital single two weeks before the album’s release.
A studio version of the track was recorded on 21 November 2011, at Paisley Park Studios in Chanhassen, Minnesota, with additional recording and horn overdubs by Maceo Parker and Trombone Shorty the following day. it is not known if a studio version (with or without Prince input) was recorded earlier.
A 1:09 sample of the track was premiered on Drfunkenberry.com six months before the album’s planned release. More than a year before the album’s planned release, it was played by Prince (with lead vocals by Andy Allo) live on 27 June 2011, Le Grand Journal, Studios Rive Gauche, Paris, France, broadcast live on TV and online (it was first played live at a Prince concert three days earlier, 24 June 2011, Métropolis, Montreal, QC, Canada).
The song was written by Andy Allo. When asked by the Irish newspaper The Independent if there is any song he wished he had written, Prince replied by saying "People Pleaser", confirming that he did not write it (although he also jokingly responded "Nothing Compares 2 U", which he did write, but is erroneously regarded as a song by Sinéad O’Connor, who covered it).
Andy Allo explained in a interview to Bonedo.de that People Pleaser was initially more a blues number which evolved into a funk number when she played it to Prince, who then added the song to his live repertoire with The NPG.
The song is the earliest-released Prince-related studio track to feature Ida Nielsen, although she had appeared on various live tracks since joining Prince’s band in 2010. It is also the earliest-released Prince-related track to feature Trombone Shorty.
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