"Jungle Love" by The Time

Song#:  2099
Date:  10/27/1984
Debut:  88
Peak:  20
Weeks:  25
Genre:  R&B



Pop Bits:  Although The Time were a hot live band, it was basically Prince who headed up their recordings. He wrote, produced, and played the instruments on the band's first two albums with Morris Day providing the lead vocals. The Time released two successful albums that scored three R&B Top 10's, but crossing over to Pop proved elusive. That was until Prince included the band in his film Purple Rain. Prior to the film, Prince and the band were prepping a third album. Although Prince was still writing or co-writing all the songs and producing, this time around the band was a bit more involved in the recording process. After the LP, titled Ice Cream Castle, was completed, the title-track was issued as the first single. It stalled at #11 at R&B and failed to make the Pop chart. However, after the band's appearance in Purple Rain, attention was drawn to them along with this song that was included in the film. It was issued as a single and finally became their first to become a hit at Pop. It became their fourth Top 10 at R&B getting to #6.

ReduxReview:  Out of all Prince's side projects, The Time was probably the best and most successful. Although they had a few throw away tracks, Prince filled their first three LPs with some pretty good tunes. While he didn't hand over any classics, he did write some solid Minneapolis-style material that helped give the band an identity and made them more than just a Princely project. This is one of those tunes. It's a fun one that was made even more famous by Morris Day's performance of it in Purple Rain, which helped get the tune into the upper reaches of the Pop chart.

ReduxRating:  7/10

Trivia:  Double Shot!  1) The song title "Ice Cream Castles" was inspired by one of Prince's favorite artists, Joni Mitchell. The second line of her classic song "Both Sides, Now" is "and ice cream castles in the air." Mitchell wrote the song in 1967 and it ended up being recorded first by singer Judy Collins. Released as a single in 1968, Collins' version would be a Grammy-winning hit that got to #8 Pop and #3 AC. Mitchell would record her own version for her 1969 album Clouds.  2) On the b-side of the "Ice Cream Castles" single was a little jam session song called "Tricky." It featured Morris Day on drums and Prince on everything else. Prince also performed the lead vocal on the track, but he did it as a voice that was imitating Morris Day. The impromptu lyrics are said to be poking fun at either Bootsy Collins or George Clinton, who was a Prince favorite.

_________________________________________________________________________________