Why Prince turned a terrifying prophecy about the end of the world into a party
In short: When Prince watched a documentary about Nostradamus, his bandmates were left haunted by the looming apocalypse. Prince, however, saw an opportunity to provide hope. He channeled that dread into his 1982 anthem, creating a danceable, defiant masterpiece that became the only song titled after a year to chart during that very year.
The genesis of the track lies in a 1982 television special that Prince and his band, the Revolution, viewed while touring. The program focused on the predictions of Nostradamus, specifically regarding the end of the world. While the musicians were unsettled by the film, Prince felt a sense of calm. He observed that his companions were dreading the future, yet he remained optimistic, believing he would be fine even if the planet faced difficult times. He aimed to write a song that offered a sense of hope amidst the anxiety of the era.
Musically, the track is a blend of deliberate artifice and spontaneous energy. The iconic scratching and explosion sounds were not artistic choices but clever fixes used to mask recording errors. Prince shared vocal duties with band members Dez Dickerson, Lisa Coleman, and Jill Jones, initially planning a three-part harmony before deciding to isolate the voices for each verse. The song’s opening, featuring a slowed-down voice promising safety and fun, set the tone for a track that Billboard famously noted made the apocalypse sound danceable.
The song’s cultural footprint is massive. It achieved a unique milestone by becoming the first track to reach the top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100 across three different decades. Its success was bolstered by an MTV video that aired in December 1982, a pivotal moment for an African-American artist at a time when such airplay was difficult to secure. The video, featuring Prince descending on a fireman's pole, helped propel the album to gold status. By the time the actual year 1999 arrived, the song had become a cultural fixture, even being played on a continuous loop by M2 for the full 24 hours of New Year's Eve.
The song's legacy is also marked by its influence on other artists, with Phil Collins acknowledging that his own hit 'Sussudio' was heavily inspired by the track. Despite multiple re-releases and a re-recorded version, the original remains a definitive piece of pop history, having sold over 727,000 copies in the United States by April 2016.
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: 1999 (Prince song)
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