In honor of the 40th anniversary of Prince’s second album, Prince—which was released on October 19, 1979—The Prince Estate and Warner Records are pleased to announce the surprise release of a previously unheard, solo acoustic demo recording of the Grammy-winning Prince track “I Feel for You,” available on streaming services and as a limited-run 7” vinyl single.
The new two-track single includes the acoustic demo of “I Feel for You” on the A-side and the original studio recording on the B-side, and is available as a Made to Order release exclusively at Prince.com for the next seven days.
The special, stripped-down demo recording captures a 20-year-old Prince in a raw, intimate moment, and begins with the sound of the artist pressing the record button on a cassette tape recorder and picking up an acoustic guitar. The recording was created in the winter of 1978-1979, around the time Prince was preparing to make his solo debut at the Capri Theater in North Minneapolis, and it was recently rediscovered on one of the countless cassette tapes stored in his legendary vault.
The fully produced, studio recording of “I Feel For You” was included on Prince’s second album, Prince. It would become a hit a few years later, when it was covered by Chaka Khan and released as the title track of her solo album, I Feel for You, in 1984. Her version, which featured a cameo by the rapper Melle Mel, became a Top 10 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 and earned two Grammys—including a Grammy Award for Best R&B Song that honored Prince’s contributions as songwriter.
