Deemed as the bona fide backseat make out song of Prince's 1983 album titled 1999, Little Red Corvette combines Prince's sultry lyrics filled with innuendos with synth-saturated click track rhythms to make one flirty little number.
Although prior to this song, Prince was known for his blatantly sexual lyrics mixed with a raw and funkier sound, which resulted in most of his earlier recording not getting any radio play. This song was just obscure enough to not have offended anybody thus resulting in radio play.
In the song, Prince narrates a one-night stand with a beautiful but promiscuous woman, metaphorically named "Little Red Corvette," throughout the song he claims to enjoy the experience but urges her to slow down, find a love that is going to last before she destroys herself. The exact nature of the song is left to the imagination being that Prince is never quite clear as to whether he is talking about a car or some red hot minx. In addition to "Little Red Corvette," Prince uses several other automobile metaphors, including comparing their interlude to riding in a limousine.
It is rumored Prince got the idea for the song while he fell asleep in Lisa Coleman's Edsel or Mercury Montclair, depending on who you talk to, after an exhausting all-night recording session. Lisa Colman was Prince's keyboardist for both his 1999 album and Controversy albums and did backing vocals for Little Red Corvette. According to the rumor, the lyrics came to Prince in bits and pieces during that particular catnap and others that followed and eventually he was able to finish it without sleeping.
Little Red Corvette became one of Prince's best known songs and helped put his name on the music charts. This song was his biggest hit at the time, and the first to reach top ten status in the United States peaking at #6 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, which is the US music industry standard singles popularity chart issued by Billboard magazine. Little Red Corvette was one of his first singles to perform better on the pop chart then the R&B chart, due to the pop/rock format of the song.
The same Little Red Corvette inspired another musician, Stevie Nicks who got the idea for "Stand Back" after hearing Little Red Corvette. She heard Prince's song in her car, wrote "Stand Back" that night, later called Prince who came into the studio when they recorded the song to play keyboards.
Little Red Corvette is one of those songs that will forever stand the test of time. In 2001, Chevrolet put up billboards with a picture of a red 1963 Corvette Sting Ray that stated, "They don't write songs about Volvos." In 2003, Chevrolet used that statement in a commercial that aired for the first time during the Grammys. The ad showed old footage of The Beach Boys performing "My 409" followed by Don McLean singing "American Pie" ("drove my Chevy to the levee"), and then Prince performing "Little Red Corvette."
