The Upcoming
  • Cinema & Tv
    • Movie reviews
    • Film festivals
      • Berlin
      • Tribeca
      • Sundance London
      • Cannes
      • Locarno
      • Venice
      • London
      • Toronto
    • Show reviews
  • Music
    • Live music
  • Food & Drinks
    • News & Features
    • Restaurant & bar reviews
    • Interviews & Recipes
  • Theatre
  • Art
  • Travel & Lifestyle
  • Literature
  • Fashion & Beauty
    • Accessories
    • Beauty
    • News & Features
    • Shopping & Trends
    • Tips & How-tos
    • Fashion weeks
      • London Fashion Week
      • London Fashion Week Men’s
      • New York Fashion Week
      • Milan Fashion Week
      • Paris Fashion Week
      • Haute Couture
  • Join us
    • Editorial unit
    • Our writers
    • Join the team
    • Join the mailing list
    • Support us
    • Contact us
  • Competitions
  • Facebook

  • Twitter

  • Instagram

  • YouTube

  • RSS

Feature of the week

Happy 30th birthday Little Red Corvette

Happy 30th birthday Little Red Corvette
27 February 2013
The editorial unit
Avatar
The editorial unit
27 February 2013

Promo

SPONSORED CONTENT

It’s the track that catapulted Prince onto the world stage. And 30 years later this funk-rock groove still thrills like a grid of sports cars revving up under the starter’s flag. Little Red Corvette, we green-light your place in the list of all-time-great auto-themed songs.

Recorded in February 1983, LRC moved the Mineappolis maverick’s career into the fast lane. From the now-iconic album 1999, it was Prince’s first top-10 US hit, and the crowd-pleaser which opened his live shows for years.

Sleazy tale
As the lights went up Prince, draped across a scarlet Vette’s bonnet, would croon and scream this sleazy tale of his one-night stand with a beautiful but loose woman. Auto metaphors pour out – Prince urges his lover to “slow down” she replies “Baby, have you got enough gas?” The climax comes with the line “The ride is so smooth, you must be a limousine” – which in 1983, decades before Beyoncé or Rihanna strutted their stuff – had many choking on the dry ice.

MTV sensation
If you couldn’t get to see Prince cavorting on a Corvette live, there was always MTV. LRC was only the second video showcasing a black artist – after Michael Jackson’s Billie Jean – to play in heavy rotation on the  all -conquering music channel. Streaming the singer’s sound and look to homes around the globe.  

Three more to celebrate
Little Red Corvette isn’t the only great auto-themed song celebrating an important birthday in 2013. Here are three more:

  • Little Deuce Coupe, The Beach Boys, 1963. One of a fleet of auto-focused singles which, along with their signature tracks about surfing, steered the harmonising Californians into poll position in the early 60s pop charts. Fresh, like the Pacific air rushing through a sunroof; electric bright, like the flash of chrome in an LA rear-view mirror at noon; and 50 years young.
  • Racing in the Street, Bruce Springsteen, 1978. In this 35-year-old cut from Darkness on the Edge of Town, the Boss is a guy with a dead-end job whose only soulmate is a self-built ’69 Chevy which he rides “from town to town” in search of similar desperados who race him for money. Eerily bleak and beautiful.
  • Wheels, AC/DC, 2008. Who says they don’t write them like they used to? At just five years old, this titanic rocker starts in overdrive and the foot stays glued to the gas. “Rolling ’round my head, going through the red,” blazes singer Brian Johnson as Angus Young’s guitar flares like a hotrod’s exhaust.

Happy birthday to you all!

 The editorial unit
Photo: Courtesy of Warner Bros

Related Items

More in Feature of the week

What to do after a failed pitch to investors

The editorial unit
Read More

Tips for organising a charity fundraising event

The editorial unit
Read More

The foods of rural Scotland to enjoy while on holiday

The editorial unit
Read More

Tips for creating a peaceful home

The editorial unit
Read More

Five pearl necklace styles adored by jewellery lovers

The editorial unit
Read More

How do reduce sleep-related back pain?

The editorial unit
Read More

Skincare 101: How cleansing foam works

The editorial unit
Read More

How to manage risk when trading with leverage

The editorial unit
Read More

Serious Mexican food in London and where to find it

The editorial unit
Read More
Scroll for more
Tap

Promo

SPONSORED CONTENT
  • Popular

  • Latest

  • TOP PICKS

  • Nope
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Ed Fringe 2022: Hungry
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • Eiffel
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Royal Ballet School students return to the stage for post-Covid performances
    Theatre
  • South Facing Festival: Richard Ashcroft and his band were on impressive form from start to finish
    ★★★★★
    Live music
  • Kasabian – The Alchemist’s Euphoria
    ★★★★★
    Album review
  • Rita at Charing Cross Theatre
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • Ed Fringe 2022: Hungry
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • “Even people who’ve been through adversity might say ‘Well, I wouldn’t change anything because I wouldn’t be who I am'”: Eva Noblezada and Flula Borg on Luck
    Cinema & Tv
  • “Film offers a way of looking at the past, the present and the future simultaneously. That’s its wonder”: Sarah Beddington on Fadia’s Tree
    Cinema & Tv
  • Kasabian – The Alchemist’s Euphoria
    ★★★★★
    Album review
  • Rita at Charing Cross Theatre
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • “Even people who’ve been through adversity might say ‘Well, I wouldn’t change anything because I wouldn’t be who I am'”: Eva Noblezada and Flula Borg on Luck
    Cinema & Tv
  • Nope
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Five Days at Memorial
    ★★★★★
    apple
The Upcoming
Pages
  • Contact us
  • Join mailing list
  • Join us
  • Our London food map
  • Our writers
  • Support us
  • What, when, why
With the support from:
International driving license

Copyright © 2011-2020 FL Media

Online sales figures hit all-time high
Computers to extract huge amounts of relevant data