Delirious

The song Delirious, which is part of Prince's album 1999, was released as the third single from that production. What's interesting is that its success was boosted, in part, by the popularity of the previous single, Little Red Corvette. Additionally, it was common for DJs to play the first three songs from the album in sequence, and coincidentally, those were the ones that had been chosen as singles. This created a natural flow that helped Delirious reach number 8 on the US charts during the fall of 1983.

Musically, Delirious is based on a 12-bar blues structure. The lyrics subtly play with car and racing metaphors to describe how a captivating woman is driving the narrator crazy, using suggestive but discreet enough language to avoid censorship issues. The track kicks off with a characteristic Linn drum machine pattern and a synthesized bass line, before the main synthesizer hook takes center stage. A bass line with a springy sound gives the song a rockabilly feel, an experimentation that Prince had already explored in Jack U Off, from the album Controversy. A curious detail is that the song ends abruptly with the sound of a baby babbling. Over time, in his live performances, Prince incorporated horn sections to transform the song into something closer to swing. The 7-inch single included a poster with a 1983 calendar and photos of the artist. The B-side of this single was Horny Toad, which shared a similar rockabilly style and instrumentation.