Prince

Released: January 29, 1998

Songwriter: Prince

Producer: Prince

[Verse 1]
Say I don't mind
What you do to me
If you waste my time
Then it's meant yo be
I called your number (Yes I did)
Like you told me to

[Chorus]
Like a puppet on a string
I'm going to dance and I'm going to sing
I will do most anything
If you promise me da bang, bang, bang!

[Verse 2]
Don't want to lie
I just want to do it
But some other guy (Baby)
Has beat me to it
If you are in love (Well)
We're two of a kind (Yes we are)
What good is your body, baby
Without your mind (Not much)

[Chorus]
Like a puppet on a string
I'm going to dance and I'm going to sing
I will do most anything
If you promise me da bang, bang, bang!

[Ad Lib]
Hit me, niggas!

[Verse 3]
So here's the story
I'm here for you
Without the boring
Without the cool
When you try to fake it (Baby)
And you wanna get through (you know what I'm talking about)

[Chorus]
Like a puppet on a string
I'm going to dance and I'm going to sing
I will do most anything
If you promise me da bang, bang, bang!

[Outro]
Bang, bang, bang!
Yeah! Ooh!

An American singer-songwriter, musician, multi-instrumentalist, and actor that produced 22 RIAA-platinum albums during his 40-year career, Prince may be known for one of many different things – his turn as “The Kid” in the iconic film/album/8 ½ minute ballad “Purple Rain”, being the writer behind the acclaimed anthem “Kiss,” rivaling Michael Jackson at the pinnacle of his career, being the inspiration behind censorship laws, or being the artist addressed as an unpronounceable symbol throughout the 1990s—but while many know of Prince, most don’t fully understand the impact his legacy left on this world.

Going by many aliases throughout his life, Prince Rogers Nelson was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota on June 7, 1958 with his father’s (John L. Nelson) stage name as his own given one. Growing up, Prince suffered from serious epileptic seizures at a very young age, but he had wrote his first composition of many by age seven, and outside of his love for basketball, he wanted music to be his purpose in life. His tumultuous childhood, witnessing alcoholism and abuse, caused him to find refuge in neighbor André Cymone’s home in his teens, where the two competed in local band competitions, leading to Prince’s introduction to Morris Day alongside music with his cousin’s band 94 East, leading him to be courted by record labels and ultimately signed to Warner Bros. Records with complete creative control; at 19, his debut album, For You (1978) was released – Prince played all 19 instruments on the record.

Influenced by the likes of Miles Davis, Rick James, and James Brown, Prince desired to form a music dynasty and after the success of his next albums – the platinum-selling Prince (1979), the sexually-charged Dirty Mind (1980), and politically-motivated Controversy (1981) – he negotiated for the ability to form his own label and manage artists of his own. Prince’s trademark sexual/religious rhetoric within pop-and-dance, funk-rock sound gained him a following, but his opening slates for Rick James and The Rolling Stones were both negatively received and facing bankruptcy, the young artist began to reach for mainstream popularity. Cashing on the drug-influenced doomsday mania of the times, 1982’s 1999 easily achieved that mainstream appeal, landing him on MTV, music charts, and radio stations across the world.

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