Old School Friday Presents The Beautiful Ones

This week’s theme for the Old School Friday meme is songs with the word “baby” in the lyrics. Well my choice is from the Purple Man, Prince Rogers Nelson, and it starts off with “Baby, baby, baaa-by”. The song? “The Beautiful Ones”.

I always thought this song was waaaaay cool. Prince covers his full range from falsetta to low tenor in this piece. His dynamic vocal changes add emphasis at just the right times through out the piece.

What really made the song so entirely cool is the melodic way that Prince pours his heart out to some girl telling her what he really means and how he really feels about her. This was one of those fantasy songs for guys like me who were actually mush mouths and fraidy cats when it came to talking to girls in high school. I always pictured myself crooning this one to the fine chicks in my mind though.

If you really think about it he’s giving the girl a type of ultimatum. He can’t take it anymore and wants to know where she stands so he’s telling her very clearly where he’s coming from. And he’s doing it like it was perfectly alright for a dude to to lay it on the line honestly like it was all or nothing for this one-and-only honey dip who had him in the palm of her hand – if she would have him and him alone.

The orchestration of the song was tight too. It pulls you in with that understated, rambling, mid tempo drum beat intro with the space agey sound effect weaved into it and the tinkling high octave piano line laid in on top of it that leads into the first verse.

The last line ties it all up when he tells her how it has to be: “Do you want him? (guitar and keyboard crescendo) Or do you want me? (drums pulling up and adding to the crescendo) Cuz I want you! (synthesizers filling out the flourish)”. Hey repeats this line with a couple extra verses thrown in for emphasis and then it ends with the same easy groove that introduced the song. Man, for my money, it is still one of the best rock/R&B endings in pop music history .

Unfortunately Prince’s people have pulled all of his stuff off YouTube (What’s another source for clips people?) so here are some guys who try to give you a feel of this classic from the Purle Rain album from 1985 if I recall correctly.