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Shall We Dance is the second track on Brownmark’s second solo album Good Feeling. The track was written by Prince and produced by Levi Seacer, Jr.
The tape of the song in the vault dates this song to 2 January 1989. It was recorded at Paisley Park Studios in Chanhassen, Minnesota. The pizzicato/harp sound in the beginning and a part in the second verse are sampled from Igor Stravinsky’s "The Firebird" as performed by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra And Chorus conducted by Robert Shaw in 1978. The song features Prince as a musician, with Brownmark replacing the lead and backing vocals for the released version.
While reflecting on the track’s history on Facebook in 2016, Chuck Zwicky wrote "I was setting up Studio A for my session with Prince and listening to some CDs I had bought in: Debussy’s "Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune" and Stravinsky’s "The Firebird"...When Prince arrived, I shut them off and we began our session (...). We were working on a new track and had already laid down the Linn LM-1 Drum Machine, a bass part from the EIII sampler library, and a few other things... He was working on the lyrics a bit, scribbling away in his notebook (...) He laid down a few vocal parts and a few harmonies.... The he asked me about the CDs I had. I told him what they were, early 20th century music, and he asked me if we could listen to them. He particularly liked the flute theme of the Debussy and the pizzicato/xylophone motif in the Stravinsly, so into the Publison (sampler) they went.... I triggered the Stravinsly off the kick (à la Batdance) and he played the Debussy manually from the D-50 which we had used as a MIDI controller for the Publison."
Interestingly, a sample of Prélude À L'Après-Midi D'Un Faune is also included in Still Would Stand All Time. The Firebird would also be sampled a few years later for a remix of Loose!.
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