Prince – Controversy

He asks the questions, then recites the prayer

Controversy opens Prince’s fourth album, and it arrived first as a single. Warner Bros. released it in the United States on 2 September 1981, six weeks before the album on 14 October. The basic track was recorded in late spring or summer 1981 at his Kiowa Trail home studio in Chanhassen, in the same run as Poppa Grooves and Tick, Tick, Bang. Added parts and the mix were finished at Sunset Sound in Hollywood between 14 and 23 August 1981. Prince played the instruments and sang. Lisa Coleman added backing vocals.

The album version runs 7:14. A 7-inch edit cuts it to 3:35. The B-side is When You Were Mine, from Dirty Mind. The rhythm is a steady machine beat, synth bass, guitar and keys. The lyric is a list of questions people were already asking: black or white, straight or gay. In the middle he recites the Lord’s Prayer in full. The ending chant is blunt. People call him rude. He wishes everybody were nude. He wishes there were no black and white, and no rules. Around it the album goes to Ronnie, Talk to Russia, Annie Christian and Jack U Off. The title track asks those questions.

The charts split by format. On the Billboard Hot 100 it entered at 90 on 24 October 1981 and peaked at 70, nine weeks in all. On the Hot Soul Singles chart it reached number 3 and stayed 20 weeks. Paired with Let’s Work it hit number 1 on the Billboard Disco Top 80 and held the top for six weeks, the first Prince songs to do that. Australia’s Kent report put the single at 15. The Netherlands took it to 28. The album reached 21 on the Billboard 200 and 3 on the R&B albums chart.