Prince Was Half Asleep When He Wrote This 1980s Hit

In 1983, Prince had a big hit with “Little Red Corvette”. The song, which he wrote entirely by himself, is part of his iconic 1999 album, a record that also includes the title track and “Delirious”.

But it’s “Little Red Corvette” that remains one of Prince’s most notable songs, even decades later. The success of the song is interesting, since Prince, who notoriously worked for hours and hours on end without sleeping, actually wrote a lot of “Little Red Corvette” while dozing off.

Prince reportedly fell asleep in the back of his backup singer Lisa Coleman’s car. However, Coleman’s car was not actually a Corvette but a Mercury Montclair Marauder. While dozing off, Prince had the idea for “Little Red Corvette”.

The chorus says, “And, honey, I say, ‘Little red Corvette / Baby, you’re much too fast / Little red Corvette / You need a love that’s gonna last.”

The Car That Inspired “Little Red Corvette” by Prince

When Prince wrote “Little Red Corvette”, he was in the middle of a recording session that went all night long. He would periodically go out to Coleman’s car to doze off. When he would fall asleep, the lyrics to “Little Red Corvette” came to him in pieces. When he was fully rejuvenated, Prince finished this song.

Coleman and Prince were also friends. And while Prince could have certainly afforded to purchase any car he wanted, he often chose Coleman’s car when he needed to get away.

“Prince was always borrowing my car because it was awesome,” Coleman tells BBC. “It was a ’64 Mercury Montclair, pink and white, and it was just the perfect cruise-mobile on a beautiful day in Minneapolis. He actually put a couple of dents in it, because it was so big. He’d come up to me and mumble, ‘Hey Lisa, sorry about your car.’”

“So I’d run out to inspect the damage, and there’d be a little dent with some yellow paint from a pole he’d reversed into,” she adds. “And I’d go, ‘Damn it. Watch where you’re going!’”

Also in 1983, Stevie Nicks released “Stand Back”, inspired by this song. Nicks heard “Little Red Corvette” while driving with her husband on their wedding day and had the idea for “Stand Back”. Prince also played on “Stand Back”.

“Prince did come into the studio the night I called him and told him about the song, and he played incredible synthesizer on it,” Nicks recalls. “And then he just walked out of my life, and I didn’t see him for a long time. It was extraordinary.”

Photo by Jim Steinfeldt/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images