1999
Studio album by Prince andthe Revolution
Released	October 27, 1982 (1982-10-27)
Recorded	January–August 1982
Studio	Kiowa Trail Home Studio (Chanhassen, Minnesota) Sunset Sound Recorders (Hollywood, California)
Genre	Minneapolis sound[1] funk[2][3] synth-pop[4] R&B[5] dance[3] new wave[6][7]
Length	70:29
Label	Warner Bros.
Producer	Prince
Prince chronology
Controversy (1981) 1999 (1982) Purple Rain (1984)
Singles from 1999
"1999" Released: September 24, 1982 "Little Red Corvette" Released: February 9, 1983 "Delirious" Released: August 17, 1983 "Automatic" Released: August 1983 (AU) "Let's Pretend We're Married" Released: November 23, 1983

1999 is the fifth studioalbum by the American singer-songwriter and musicianPrince, released on October 27, 1982, byWarner Bros. Records. It was his first album to be recorded with his bandthe Revolution.1999's critical and commercial success propelled Prince to a place in the public psyche and marked the beginning of two years of heightened fame via his following releases.^[8]

1999 was Prince's first top 10 album on the Billboard 200, charting at number nine upon release, and was fifth in the Billboard Year-End Albums of 1983. "1999", a protest against nuclear proliferation, was aBillboard Hot 100 top 20 hit, peaking at number 12. It has since become one of Prince's most recognizable compositions. "Delirious" reached number eight on theBillboard Hot 100, while "Little Red Corvette" peaked at number six, becoming Prince's highest charting US single at the time. "International Lover" was also nominated forBest Male R&B Vocal Performance at the26th Grammy Awards, which was Prince's firstGrammy Award nomination.

1999 received widespread acclaim from critics, and was seen as Prince's breakthrough album. On March 24, 1999,1999 was certifiedquadruple platinum by theRecording Industry Association of America (RIAA). FollowingPrince's death in 2016, the album re-entered theBillboard 200 and peaked at number seven, besting its original performance on the chart thirty-three years earlier. A re-release and remaster of the album, including 35 previously unreleased recordings, was released in November 2019.^[9]

1999 has been ranked as one of the greatest albums of all time by several publications and organizations.^[10] Themusic videos for both "1999" and "Little Red Corvette" received heavy rotation onMTV, making Prince one of the first Black artists to be prominently featured on the television channel.^[11] According to theRolling Stone Album Guide (2004), "1999 may be Prince's most influential album: Its synth-and-drum machine-heavy arrangements codified theMinneapolis sound that loomed over mid-'80s R&B and pop, not to mention the next two decades' worth of electro, house, andtechno."^[8] It is also included onRolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. In 2008, the album was inducted into theGrammy Hall of Fame.^[12]

The album's opening title track, "1999", was also its first single and initially peaked atNo. 44 on the USBillboard Hot 100.^[13][14] It was subsequently re-released following the huge success of its follow-up single and1999's second track, "Little Red Corvette", which peaked atNo. 6 on the USBillboard Hot 100. Lisa Coleman - who sang on the album - recalled how Prince came up with "Little Red Corvette" after sleeping in her pinkMercury Montclair Maurauder.^[15] Shortly after being reissued, "1999" hitNo. 12, and subsequently became one of Prince's most recognizable compositions.[16] Its composition, and inclusion in the album, may have been originally prompted by a suggestion from the record company.^[17]

Themusic videos for both "1999" and "Little Red Corvette" were significant as two of the first videos by a black artist to receive heavy rotation on the newly launched music video channel,MTV, after heated controversy over its failure to promote black performers.^[18][19][20] The two tracks were later combined as a double A-side single in the United Kingdom, where it peaked at number 2. A subsequentsingle from the album and its third chronological track, therockabilly-influenced "Delirious", still managed top ten status in the United States atNo. 8, but a fourth, the double-sided single "Let's Pretend We're Married"/"Irresistible Bitch", got no further thanNo. 52.[21]

While "Little Red Corvette" helped Prince cross over to the wider rock audience,^[22] the rest of1999 retains thefunk elements featured in previous albums and is dominated by the use ofsynthesizers anddrum machines. The album is, however, notable within Prince's catalogue for its wide variety of themes in addition to the sexual imagery which had already become something of a trademark on his previous work.^[23] "Automatic", extending to almost ten minutes, starts side three of the album with a prominent synthesizer melody andbondage-inspired lyrical imagery which, transplanted to the music video for the track (with a scene that depicted Prince being tied up and whipped by band-membersLisa Coleman andJill Jones), had been deemed too sexual forMTV in 1983.^[24]

"Something in the Water (Does Not Compute)", an ode to a harsh lover, is the centerpiece of a preoccupation withComputer Age themes that would continue into future albums.^[25][26] This is also reflected in various aspects of the album's instrumentation, with Prince fully embracing the gadgetry and sounds of emergent electro-funk and 1980s sequencing technology on tracks like "Let's Pretend We're Married" and "All the Critics Love U in New York", songs that widen his use of synthesizers and prominently feature the use of aLinn LM-1 drum machine.^[27]1999 also contains twoballads in "Free", apiano piece encouraging people to count their blessings and be thankful for what they have, and "International Lover", a slow-paced love song for which Prince received his firstGrammy Award nomination in1984 under the category ofBest Male R&B Vocal Performance.^[28]

The album's cover features elements from the front cover of Prince's previous album,Controversy; namely the eyes and the "Rude Boy" pin in the "1999", the jacket studs in the "R" and the smile in the "P". The "I" in "Prince" contains the words "and the Revolution" written backwards (as "dna eht noituloveR"), both acknowledging his backing band and foreshadowing the next four years of his career.

1999 was released on October 27, 1982, byWarner Bros. Records. It was the fifth album released by Prince.1999 was Prince's first top ten album on theBillboard 200, peaking at number nine. It was fifth in theBillboard Year-End Albums of 1983. FollowingPrince's death in 2016, the album re-entered theBillboard 200 and peaked at number seven, besting its original performance on the chart thirty-three years earlier. It also peaked in the top 10 in New Zealand, reaching number six on theNew Zealand Albums Chart in 1982.

The album was released as aRemastered,Deluxe andSuper Deluxe edition on November 29, 2019. The most elaborate re-issue contains five CDs featuring previously unreleased tracks, and a live DVD, with a total running time of 5 hours & 53 minutes.^[29] It reached the top 20 of the charts in Belgium, the Netherlands and Hungary.

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	100/100 (2019 edition)[30]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[2]
Blender	[31]
Chicago Sun-Times	[32]
Entertainment Weekly	A−[33]
The Guardian	[34]
Pitchfork	10/10[35]
Rolling Stone	[4]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide	[36]
Spin Alternative Record Guide	8/10[37]
The Village Voice	A−[3]

1999 was well received by contemporary critics. Reviewing forRolling Stone in December 1982, Michael Hill praised Prince for "working like a colorblind technician who's studied bothDevo andAfrika Bambaataa and theSoulsonic Force, keeping the [1999's] songs constantly kinetic with an inventive series of shocks and surprises."^[38]The Village Voice reviewerRobert Christgau was more reserved in his praise. While conceding that, "like every black pop auteur, Prince commands his own personal groove ... stretching his flat funk forcebeat onto two discs worth of deeply useful dance tracks", he also believed that the musician's only reliable subject remains race, leaving the critic with doubts about the messages behind the sex and apocalyptic songs.^[3]

Retrospective appraisals have been even more favorable. According toThe New Rolling Stone Album Guide (2004), "1999 may be Prince's most influential album: Its synth-and-drum machine-heavy arrangements codified theMinneapolis sound that loomed over mid-'80s R&B and pop, not to mention the next two decades' worth of electro, house, and techno."^[8] Paul A. Thompson ofPitchfork noted the way Prince "marshal[led] theReagan years and the LM-1 for his own purposes" has rarely been replicated and called1999 a "rare record that has come to define its era while also existing outside of it, a masterpiece that immediately precedes the albums Prince fashioned, conspicuously, as masterpieces." Thompson also described the album as a "computer breathing."^[39] Also writing forPitchfork, Maura Johnston wrote in 2016 that through the "balancing synth-funk explorations...taut pop construction, genre-bending, and the proto-nuclear fallout of lust,1999 still sounds like a landmark release in 2016". Johnston further praised Prince's "singular vision and willingness to indulge his curiosities" for creating an "apocalypse-anticipating album that, perhaps paradoxically, was built to last for decades and even centuries to come."^[40] Writing forPopMatters, Eric Henderson called1999 a "massive, sexy, rump-shaking, and sometimes even disturbing masterpiece" and stated that even though it may not be better thanDirty Mind,Purple Rain, andSign o' the Times, the album represented a "quantum leap in sophistication and scope." Henderson also claimed that1999 raised the bar for '80s funk.^[41]

1999 has appeared on professional listings of the greatest albums. In 1989,Rolling Stone ranked1999 16th on its list of the 100 Greatest Albums of the 1980s.^[10] In 2003,VH1 placed1999 number 48 in its list of the 100 Greatest Albums.^[42] The album was also part ofSlant Magazine's list The 50 Most Essential Pop Albums^[43] and the magazine listed the album at number 8 on its list of Best Albums of the 1980s.^[44] In 2003, the album was ranked number 163 onRolling Stone magazine's list ofThe 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. It maintained the rating in a 2012 revised list,^[45] and was re-ranked number 130 in 2020.^[46] The album was also included in the book1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.^[47] The album was inducted into theGrammy Hall of Fame in 2008.^[12]

Alternate formats

• Originally released onvinyl as a double LP (the first of a number of double sets from Prince),1999 was cut to a single vinyl edition in some countries, omitting "D.M.S.R.", "Automatic", "All the Critics Love U in New York" and "International Lover"; this single LP was reissued as part ofRecord Store Day 2018.^[49]

Some countries in 1983, such asBrazil andKenya, opted to issue the release as two separate vinyl albums,1999 I and1999 II.^[50]

• The originalcompact disc version of the album was also cut, omitting "D.M.S.R." There is a notice on the back cover of the original compact disc pressing that reads "To enable the release of1999 as a single compact disc, the song 'D.M.S.R.' has been omitted from the original LP edition." Later compact disc pressings (from a 1990 reissue onward) included the track.
• On thecassette release, "Free" was placed after "D.M.S.R." to end the first side, balancing out the lengths of both sides of the cassette.

TheRemastered edition contains a remaster of the original album. TheDeluxe edition contains the remaster and a bonus disc with all the single, maxi-single and promo mixes as well as the B-sides. TheSuper Deluxe edition contains four more discs: Two of them contain 24 previously unissued studio tracks, the third contains a complete live audio performance of the1999 Tour recorded at the late show (the second of two that day) in Detroit, Michigan, on November 30, 1982, and a DVD with another complete, previously unreleased concert from the1999 Tour, recorded in multi-cam live at theHouston Summit on December 29, 1982.^[51] The albums were also issued on vinyl in a 2 LP, 4 LP and 10 LP + DVD set.^[52] TheSuper Deluxe edition and theDeluxe edition are both completely out of print physically.

Adapted from Jack Brown, Benoît Clerc,Reverb, the Super Deluxebooklet,^{[53][54][55][56]} and Guitar Cloud[42]

• Prince – lead and backing vocals(all tracks),electric guitar(tracks 1–3, 5–6, 8–11),bass(tracks 1–6, 8–11),Steinwaypiano(track 8),synthesizers(tracks 2, 4, 6, 8–10),ARP Omni(track 1),Oberheim OB-SX(track 7),Oberheim OB-X(tracks 1, 11),Oberheim OB-Xa(track 3),Oberheim OB-8(track 5),Linn LM-1(tracks 1–10),drums(tracks 1, 9, 11(possible)),claps(tracks 1, 5),Pearl SY-1 Syncussion(tracks 1–2, 4),finger snaps(track 11)
• Lisa Coleman – co-lead vocals(track 1), backing vocals(tracks 1–3, 5–6, 8), claps(track 5)
• Dez Dickerson – co-lead vocals(track 1), backing vocals(tracks 1–2, 5), electric guitarsolo(track 2), claps(track 5)
• Jesse Johnson – backing vocals(track 1)
• Jill Jones – co-lead vocals(track 1), backing vocals(tracks 1, 6, 8),moans(track 9), claps(track 6)
• Bobby Z. – electronic percussion(tracks 1, 5),cymbals(track 5)
• Brownmark, The Count,Peggy McCreary, Carol McGovney, Poochie, Jamie Shoop – backing vocals(track 5), claps(track 5)
• Wendy Melvoin,Vanity – backing vocals(track 8)
• Morris Day – drums(track 11(possible))

• Prince –producer
• Don Batts –engineer(tracks 1–2, 7)
• David Leonard, Peggy McCreary –mixing, engineers
• Bernie Grundman – mastering (A&M Records)

While not performance credited for the studio recordings, band membersDoctor Fink (keyboards),Bobby Z. (drums) andBrown Mark (bass) do appear in the music videos.

• "1999" (No. 12 US,No. 4 US R&B,No. 25 UK)

1. "1999"
2. "How Come U Don't Call Me Anymore?"

• "Little Red Corvette" (No. 6 US,No. 15 US R&B,No. 54 UK)

1. "Little Red Corvette"
2. "All the Critics Love U in New York"

• "Delirious" (No. 8 US,No. 18 US R&B)

1. "Delirious"
2. "Horny Toad"

• "Automatic" (AUS)

1. "Automatic"
2. "Something in the Water (Does Not Compute)"

• "Let's Pretend We're Married" (No. 52 US,No. 55 US R&B)

1. "Let's Pretend We're Married"
2. "Irresistible Bitch"

Sources:

• Nathan Brackett, Christian Hoard (2004).The New Rolling Stone Album Guide: Completely Revised and Updated 4th Edition. Simon and Schuster.ISBN 978-0-7432-0169-8.

• 1999 atDiscogs (list of releases)
• 1999 at Prince Vault
• PodcastArchived November 28, 2019, at theWayback Machine

• 1982 albums
• Prince (musician) albums
• Albums produced by Prince (musician)
• Warner Records albums
• Grammy Hall of Fame Award recipients
• Albums recorded at Sunset Sound Recorders
• Albums recorded in a home studio
• Funk albums by American artists
• Art pop albums
• Dance music albums by American artists
• New wave albums by American artists

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