Vanity 6

Warner Bros. Records

Her and I used to love each other deeply.

Formed immediately after the Controversy Tour, Prince’s spin-off girl band was named Vanity 6 (despite only three members forming the group, six references their combined number of breasts).

The project was an evolution from an earlier vocal trio Prince formed called The Hookers – his assistant Jamie Shoop as lead, joined by sisters Loreen and Susan Moonsie. This line-up changed in 1981 when the band adopted the name of the new lead, Canadian born Denise Katrina “Vanity” Matthews – a model and part-time actress who at the time was Rick James‘ girlfriend. Denise Matthews met Prince at the American Music Awards in LA on 18 January 1980 and subsequently became his girlfriend, deepening the long standing rift between Prince and James. Among the tracks Prince wrote about Matthews, including Little Red Corvette and The Beautiful Ones, she is also the inspiration behind Vanity 6‘s only hit, Nasty Girl. Denise became one of the most significant women in Prince’s life, and posed with Prince on his first cover appearance on Rolling Stone magazine, its April 1983 issue, for which he famously refused to give an interview.

The trio was undeniably a closed-shop: Susan Moonsie was Prince’s on-off girlfriend since high school, and Brenda Bennett was his wardrobe assistant and wife of his tour production designer LeRoy Bennett. Yet all tracks for the Vanity 6 album are written or co-written by Prince, albeit credited to Vanity. The recording took place throughout March and April 1982 at Prince’s Kiowa Trail home studio in Minnesota. Vanity 6 was released on 11 August, The Time’s What Time Is It? following on the 25th, with Prince’s Prince’s breakthrough record 1999 landing that October. The trio consequently joined Prince as the first opening act on his 1999 Triple Threat Tour, the instruments for their live set performed by The Time hidden offstage behind a curtain, ahead of their own set before Prince’s.

Matthews quit the band in September 1983 due Prince still having affections for Moonsie (their breakup inspiring When Doves Cry) and to not wishing to appear in the movie Purple Rain in the role of lead female character, as was struggling with the acting lessons. A follow up LP for Vanity was planned but the physical demand performing on the Triple Threat Tour alongside a growing drug dependency, led Matthews to quit the trio and was replaced by Patrica “Apollonia” Kotero. The group reformed as Apollonia 6 with Kotero also cast as female lead in the movie.

As per his other side project The Time, Prince performed every instrument on Vanity 6. His production credit is concealed under the name of The Starr ★ Company. In 2019, Prince’s original studio demo with his guide vocals for Make-Up was released by Warner Brothers on Originals. Vanity 6‘s lead single Nasty Girl was released on 24 September 1984 on the same day as Prince’s single 1999. Nasty Girl held the number 1 slot on Billboard’s Dance chart for 4 weeks. Vanity 6 attained Gold certification by RIAA on 1 August 1985.

Following her short-lived tenure with Vanity 6, Matthews pursued a solo career and released two albums with Motown Records (Wild Animal in 1984 and Skin On Skin 1986) although neither receiving Prince’s involvement. She also had a brief TV and film career, prematurely ended by drug addiction which almost killed her in 1994 – causing kidney failure following an overdose. She recovered and converted to Christianity in 1995, but on 15 February 2016 died aged 57 from ongoing complications with kidney failure due to her past addiction. Her death affected Prince greatly. Prince died just weeks later on 21 April 2016. They were the same age.

Performers

Vocals

Denise Matthews

Susan Moonsie

Brenda Bennett

All instr.

Prince

Guitar

Dez Dickerson ^{He’s So Dull}

Bass Guitar

Terry Lewis ^{If A Girl Answers (Don’t Hang Up)}

Jesse Johnson ^{Bite The Beat}

Data

Production

Prince (as The Starr ★ Company)

Label

Warner Bros. Records

Distribution

Warner Bros. Records

Cover/Design

Allen Beaulieu

Released

41 years ago on 11 August 1982

Running Time

30:59

US Chart Peak

45

UK Chart Peak

Did not chart

Orig. Formats

Supporting tour

1999 Triple Threat Tour

1982/3

• 87 shows from 11 November 1982 to 10 April 1983

Vanity 6 – review

Vanity was one of the most gorgeous women of the early 1980s. She dated Prince, and her sister used to date Eddie Murphy. Prince never really got over her, and as if to add to the tragedy, she died the same year as Prince, 2016, on the first night of what was his final tour. Denise “Vanity” Matthews was the frontwoman of Prince’s all girl trio combo Vanity 6 (write in if you know the significance of six). The band was originally to be called The Hookers, a name that is hardly compatible with today’s morals, so we must count our blessings Vanity won through. Prince’s suspender-clad trio was Prince’s support act during his 1999 tour, which they were accompanied by The Time – those were the days. Newspapers at the time were disgusted with the girl’s getup. Their debut album contains their hit record that lived up to that look, Nasty Girl, made famous with its appearance in Beverly Hills Cop. It flew high in the charts and garnered the band Gold certification from the RIAA. The hook of Wet Dream driven by the raw harmony of backing vocalists Susan and Brenda, the overlooked partners in this trio, gives a single worthy status. Vanity’s vocal isolation in Make-Up is flawless, and the instrumentation is deep just as you would expect, and driven by an electro core, revealed best in Drive Me Wild. Prince appears in If A Girl Answers (Don’t Hang Up), he and Vanity bounce off each other wonderfully. Vanity battled drugs and demons in the mid-80s, but in later years turned her life around. She was an absolutely stunning human both inside and out, and makes the closing song 3×2=6 ever more prophetic: “she never played the part of anyone’s fool”. She was most certainly her own woman.

Vanity 6 is rated 3 out of 5 by Goldies Parade.

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