For You Prince album

Warner Bros. Records

All of this and more is for you.

Prince was aged just 19 at time of the release of For You his debut album, making him the youngest all-in-one producer, composer and performer in the history of major music labels. Like many of his later albums, Prince not only wrote the songs and provided all the vocals but played every instrument heard on it. So particular was Prince with his sound he believed it easier to play everything himself than communicate what he wanted with band members or a producer who didn’t know his music.

For You features rerecorded songs from Prince’s earlier Sound 80 demo sessions of 1976/77. The album’s configuration is the shortlist from some 20 tracks Prince had written to put on it. Shortly after signing with Warner Bros Records in June 1977, Prince was dispatched to California to lay down tracks at Record Plant studios in Sausalito for his debut LP For You throughout the last three months of the year. It was the favoured studio of Sly Stone and set in a quiet location a short distance from San Francisco. Prince’s manager Owen Husney believed it was the perfect place for Prince to learn the art of music making. To assist him, Warner assigned an experienced sound engineer named Tommy Vicari to executive produce the record. Prince accepted the appointment only on the strength of Vicari having previously worked for Carlos Santana. Starting on 1 October, production ground on until Christmas 1977 – three full months in the studio which originally had been booked for one. The sessions proved uneasy both for Prince and Vicari and the production expense of For You ballooned to almost triple the budget Warner had allocated it. Prince, a newly signed artist eager to launch his career, tussled continuously with Vicari for control of the studio, mining the experienced hand all his technical know-how.

The outcome was a complex record, with Prince hell bent to leverage every input of the studio’s 24-track recording console. For You was crafted to show off Prince’s broad range of ability. Even the LPs inner sleeve listed all the 27 instruments Prince played on the record. The production became a technical tour de force, and that is no better exemplified with the layering of an astonishing 46 vocals in the opening title track. After three months, the process left Prince exhausted and his personality did not shine through on the finished album. Feeling he needed better organisation, Prince parted company with Husney after the album’s completion. For You features reworked versions of the three original songs Husney earlier packaged into the demo reel that got Prince signed to Warner Bros on 25 June 1977: My Love Is Forever and Just As Long As We’re Together – the third, an instrumental named Jelly Jam on the finished record forms the outro to Just As Long As We’re Together, producing the LPs longest track.

For You has two tracks Prince co-wrote with his first collaborator, local record producer and lyricist Chris Moon, who realising his talent gave Prince his crucial that introduction to Husney in 1976. In his pre-Warner years, Prince preferred to create instrumentals than songs. It was Moon who introduced Prince into the art of writing lyrics, co-writing with him the ballad My Love Is Forever and the funky Soft And Wet which became Prince’s first single, released on his twentieth birthday. Soft And Wet sold an impressive 350,000 copies and scraped into the Hot 100 at number 92, and climbed as high as number 12 in the Billboard R&B equivalent, then crudely named the ‘black chart’. The album’s second single Just As Long As We’re Together followed that November, falling short of the Hot 100 it entered the R&B chart at position 91. To his chagrin Vicari would not be credited for his involvement in the LPs production. It was after all Vicari, who also happened to be Patrice Rushen’s engineer, set up the introduction to Patrice (famous for her 1982 hit single Forget Me Nots), who Prince fancied at that time, to ask her to write the orchestral arrangement for Baby, which was instead played on a synthesiser.

Selling 150,000 copies in the US after its 7 April release, For You made little impression in the Billboard 200, peaking at 138, albeit reaching number 21 in the R&B album chart. Although For You was no hit record, the LP amassed the volume of sales Warner hoped would achieve from all three albums under their 1977 deal. Its modest chart ranking was also despite For You was not supported with a tour. Prince had only put together a backing band after the release of the album, and following a show performed to Warner executives on 6 January 1979 it was felt the live act was not yet polished enough to promote the debut album with a touring show. Instead of touring, Prince returned to the studio to lay down his second LP than take to the road. Therefore Prince’s debut tour was in promotion of his second album – self-titled Prince as if to start afresh and put behind the troubled recording of the debut release. Overshadowed by subsequent releases, For You is unjustly overlooked in Prince’s catalogue. For You is a highly competent debut, and considering its depth, is astonishing that it is the work of a teenager. Only in later years would Prince himself recognise Soft And Wet as his first hit single when reissued in 1993, when he for the first time finally granted Vicari credit for his role in the song’s creation.

Cover story

Even with his debut album and aged only eighteen, Prince was calling the shots on how his image was to be presented to the world. He personally organised the photo shoot for his debut album’s cover, booking photographer Joe Giannettii, over the label’s choice Jeff Farmakes. The photo session took place in California and Prince’s directions were clear, that he would not smile and the photo be as dark as possible for his afro to blend into the background. Prince did not want to be presented like just any ordinary R&B act. They shot the image in Giannettii’s dark room, Prince’s face lit only by candlelight. Using a long exposure, Giannettii produced a cover photo with striking results. The LP’s inner sleeve image is Prince’s original brief for the main cover – him naked on a bed. Giannettii shot of Prince sat upright on a bed at Macy’s store in San Francisco, with a Gibson SJ-200 acoustic guitar across him for modesty (although he was actually wearing shorts hidden by the guitar). So keen was Prince to point out his musical proficiency, rather than print the usual lyric sheet on the inner dust cover, he lists every instrument he played on each song.

Performers

Vocals / all Instr

Prince

Data

Producers

Prince and Tommy Vicari (uncredited)

Label

Warner Bros. Records

Distribution

Warner Bros. Records

Cover/Design

Joe Giannettii and Jeff Farmakes

Released

48 years ago on 7 April 1978

Reissued

4 February 2022

Running Time

33:26

US Chart Peak

138

US R&B Peak

21

UK Chart Peak

Did not chart

Prince Album

#1

Orig. Formats

Singles from For You

Soft And Wet

Warner Bros Records

Released

7 June 1978

US Chart Peak

92

UK Chart Peak

No Release

Cover/Art

Joe Giannettii and Jeff Farmakes

Format

1. Soft And Wet (3:01)
2. So Blue (4:26)

Just As Long As We're Together

Warner Bros. Records

Released

21 November 1978

US Chart Peak

Did not chart

UK Chart Peak

No Release

Cover/Art

Generic sleeve

Format

1. Just As Long As We're Together [Edit] (3:25)
2. In Love (3:38)