There’s Something I Like About Being Your Fool

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There’s Something I Like About Being Your Fool

Sign O’ The Times Super Deluxe Edition
from the album
Sign O’ The Times Super Deluxe Edition
Song details
Performer: Prince; Bonnie Raitt
First Released: 25 September 2020 - Sign O’ The Times Super Deluxe Edition album
Album(s): Sign O’ The Times Super Deluxe Edition
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
Performed regularly on tour:
  • none
Performed occasionally in shows:
  • none

There’s Something I Like About Being Your Fool is a song recorded in late spring 1981 at Prince’s Kiowa Trail Home Studio in Chanhassen, Minnesota. It was worked on further in mid-June 1981, at Hollywood Sound Recorders in Los Angeles, California, and was mixed at Sunset Sound in Hollywood, California, on the first two days of mixing for the Controversy, 14 and 15 August 1981, indicating that it was intended for the album until the last minute.

Prince pulled out the track in 1985 for possible use by Jill Jones, but it is unclear if additional instrumentation or vocals were recorded at this point as Jones did not like the lyrics.

The track was re-recorded on 25 January 1987, at Washington Avenue Warehouse in Edina, Minnesota, for use by American blues singer-songwriter Bonnie Raitt, during a short-lived collaboration between the two artists, that was never fully developed. Prince approached her about recording some songs together and signing to his Paisley Park Records label in December 1986 after seeing her perform at The Beverly Theater, Los Angeles, CA, USA. He offered four songs to work on (I Need A Man, Jealous Girl, Promise 2 Be True and There’s Something I Like About Being Your Fool). Raitt recorded vocals for There’s Something I Like About Being Your Fool on 3 April 1987 at Prince’s Galpin Blvd Home Studio with Susan Rogers overseeing.

No further work was done as Prince was busy preparing for his next tour (Sign O’ The Times Tour). Bonnie Raitt commented on the songs by saying "I appreciated the enthusiasm, but they were not in my key. The topics were not things I was comfortable singing.". Bonnie Raitt also wanted to cut tie with Warner Bros. after the failure of her 1986 album Nine Lives. None of the songs offered by Prince ended up on her 1989 acclaimed album Nick Of Time, released on Capitol Records.

Engineer Don Batts has mentioned that Steve Fargnoli loved the song, and wishes it had been released by Prince. The lyrics deal with an unfaithful woman who crashes the narrator’s car (an idea revisited in Adore), but the narrator is willing to make up with her, "because there’s something I like about being your fool".

Prince’s version of the song was released in 2020 as the seventh track of Vault Tracks part 3, one of the discs with previously unreleased tracks included with the Sign O’ The Times Super Deluxe Edition.


Recording Information
Recording Sessions
Date Studio Additional info
Mid-June 1981 Hollywood Sound Recorders,
Los Angeles, CA, USA
Tracking
14-15 August 1981 Sunset Sound,
Hollywood, CA, USA
Mixing
25 January 1987 Washington Avenue Warehouse,
Edina, MN, USA
Re-tracking
25 January 1987 Galpin Blvd Home Studio,
Chanhassen, MN, USA
saxophone overdubs by Eric Leeds
3 April 1987 Galpin Blvd Home Studio,
Chanhassen, MN, USA
Bonnie Raitt lead vocal overdubs
Recording Personnel

Released version

Unreleased 1981 version

  • Prince - all vocals and instruments (assumed)

Unreleased Bonnie Raitt version


Versions
Released Versions
Title Length Released Version Additional info
There’s Something I Like About Being Your Fool 3:48 Sign O’ The Times Super Deluxe Edition Studio


Unreleased Versions
Title Version Additional Info
There’s Something I Like About Being Your Fool Studio Mid-June 1981
There’s Something I Like About Being Your Fool Studio August 1981 mixing
There’s Something I Like About Being Your Fool Studio January 1987, overdubs (or re-recording) before Eric Leeds saxophone overdubs
There’s Something I Like About Being Your Fool Studio After Bonnie Raitt lead vocal overdubs
 
Additional Information

See also Trivia

  • The song contains the brief line ‘Free Nelson Mandela’, seemingly quoting the 1984 single Free Nelson Mandela by The Special A.K.A.
  • The released mix of this track was done by Niko Bolas specifically for the Sign O’ The Times Super Deluxe Edition release. It was made to replicate the original mix from the time the song was initially tracked, as much as possible. So even when a slightly different mix of this track might exist, the now released version is not considered a true alternate mix of the track.

References
(There’ll Never B) Another Like Me   < < < All Songs Unreleased Songs > > >   Thieves In The Temple