Unreleased (1984) / Different Light (1986)
The mid-eighties were such a Midas period for Prince that even his cast-offs proved to be worldwide top-10 hits. Manic Monday was pulled from the Apollonia 6 album and only given to The Bangles two years later because, according to Wendy, he thought the lead singer, Susanna Hoffs, looked cute. However, it is possible Prince always sensed the song’s mainstream appeal and jettisoned it from his side-project, along with 17 Days and The Glamorous Life, to be given the chance to germinate on more fertile ground. He didn’t have the utmost confidence in Apollonia Kotero’s singing ability and although he also appears on the original demo, the vocals pale when compared to Susanna’s rendition. It’s like a room lit by tubular lighting-strips suddenly being flooded with daylight. Manic Monday may have been written by somebody to whom rat-race commutes and 9 to 5 drudgery are an exotic novelty but beneath the occasionally hollow-sounding lyrics and 1999 melody run a “crystal blue Italian stream” of sparkling, innocent pop.
I think the lyrics sound less disingenuous when you realise he nicked them from Apollonia, and it’s David Kahne’s production that really makes the Bangles version sparkle. Both versions, however, have that weird a-musical section – ‘time goes so fast, etc.’ – where Prince’s brain briefly appeared to go offline, but no-one could be bothered to improve upon it. He gets away with this sort of thing on occasion (see also complete harmonic failure during Sometimes It Snows In April, ‘Sometimes I wish’), but it’s not as convincing as a bum note from Miles Davis. On the other hand, who wants their genius unflawed? That would be boring as scrambled eggs.