"Sex Shooter" by Apollonia 6

Song#:  2089
Date:  10/20/1984
Debut:  89
Peak:  85
Weeks:  6
Genre:  R&B



Pop Bits:  After Prince's protégé trio Vanity 6 released their 1982 debut LP, work began on their follow-up album. In addition, lead singer Vanity was going to co-star with Prince in his film project Purple Rain. But then Vanity unexpectedly left the Prince camp and that left both Vanity 6 and the film role in flux. Prince then hired actress Patricia Kotero for the film and dubbed her Apollonia. With Vanity gone, he put Kotero in the lead of the trio and renamed them Apollonia 6. They recorded some songs and the tune "Sex Shooter" would be used for the trio's appearance in Purple Rain. Although it would not be part of the official soundtrack, the song was then used as the lead single from the trio's self-titled debut album. Despite being featured in the movie, the song didn't do all that well. It only managed a #19 showing at R&B and #32 at Dance while scraping the bottom of the Pop chart. The album would come out soon after, but it disappear fairly quick. It would be their only album and charting single.

ReduxReview:  Okay, so Prince is brilliant. But even brilliant folks have their share of misfires and this one certainly was. It's no wonder that Prince didn't want the credit on this or the other songs on the album (see below). This is just tired Prince. It's like he ran out of ideas for a minute and this was the result. Prince can usually be fun when he gets all sexy, but even the lyrics on this one are beyond silly. It sounds like a product from a Prince wannabe. However, it matched the trio just fine because it was as dull and as uninteresting as they were. If anyone else wrote and performed this song, I'd still dislike it. However, knowing that it came from Prince just makes it worse.

ReduxRating:  2/10

Trivia:  Double Shot!  1) This album would later be more famous for what was not on it. Although the credits on the album stated that the songs were written by various members of the trio, they apparently were actually written by Prince (who also played most all of the instruments). As sessions for the Apollonia 6 album began, Prince had already written some songs that he intended for the project. However, he later changed his mind on some of them and the songs went to other artists. Those songs included "Manic Monday," later a hit for The Bangles, and "The Glamorous Life," a Top 10'er for Sheila E. Another tune titled "17 Days" Prince kept for himself and put it on the b-side to "When Doves Cry."  2) Since this song was in Purple Rain, it was eligible for film awards and it did get a nomination. Just not the one they wanted. The song was given a Golden Raspberry Award (Razzie) nomination for Worst Original Song. It lost to the Sylvester Stallone song "Drinkenstein" from the flop film Rhinestone.

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