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From album
Camille
Prince · 1986 · Track 7
Details
Duración4:48
ÁlbumCamille
Año1986
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The story behind
The idea of exploring a relationship from a different perspective, imagining what it would be like if one were the other person's platonic partner, is the heart of If I Was Your Girlfriend. The song delves into this fantasy, posing intimate and mutually understanding scenarios, all from the voice of a man imagining himself in that role. This exploration is dressed in instrumentation that, for the time, felt quite stripped down: a drum machine rhythmic base and a bassline that set the pulse, complemented by a keyboard line that adds a subtle melancholy. What truly catches the eye is the use of Prince's voice, modified to sound higher and androgynous, which reinforces the song's theme and its uniqueness.
The beginning of the piece is a sound collage that includes the sound of an orchestra tuning, a vendor, and fragments of Felix Mendelssohn's "Wedding March". An interesting detail in the recording, according to engineer Susan Rogers, was a technical error that introduced distortion to some words. Far from being a problem, Prince loved the resulting effect and it was kept in the final version. The song was released on May 6, 1987, and although it had a moderate performance on the general charts in the United States, it reached number 12 on the Billboard Hot Black Singles and number 20 in the United Kingdom. Originally, this piece was part of the Camille project, an album that Prince conceived under the pseudonym of his female alter ego, seeking to release music without revealing his identity.
The B-side of this single was "Shockadelica", another track from the Camille sessions. This song emerged in response to an album of the same name by Jesse Johnson, a former member of The Time. Prince, upon hearing Johnson's work before its release, felt that a great album deserved a great title track. After a disagreement with Johnson, Prince recorded his own version of "Shockadelica" and played it on a Minneapolis radio station before Johnson's album went on sale, creating a public perception that Johnson was imitating Prince's idea, which caused some tension between them. The Camille project was eventually discarded in favor of Crystal Ball, and although "Shockadelica" remained on the tracklist, it was ultimately removed when the album was reduced to become Sign o' the Times.