244: Hello

Pop Life single (1985) / The Hits/The B sides (1993)
The story is well known: Prince refused to sing on the charity supergroup single We are the World, instead offering to play guitar and eventually contributing a song for the album. Shyness and illness were both claimed as excuses but Wendy later revealed the real reason was that he thought the Michael Jackson and Lionel Ritchie-penned song was lame and would tarnish his image. Prince’s non-attendance caused controversy, especially as later that night (a night he was advised to keep a low profile on to let the illness alibi stick) his bodyguard beat up a reporter who allegedly tried to get in Prince’s car. This whole episode is chronicled in the surprisingly outspoken Hello, a b-side more likeable for the music than the hastily-assembled damage control. The uptempo beat is underpinned by an urgent synth line, which sounds like a beeping alarm clock your sleeping mind has woven a narrative around instead of waking you to hit the snooze button. A fantasy world you’ve escaped into, to flee the cold morning accusations. Duvet solace. Hello may, like its magazine namesake, dress up stage-managed PR as a candid glimpse behind the celebrity curtain, but behind the words lie some prime peak-Prince pop that you could live and die in. The extended mix where he withers incoherently about shoes is even better.