![]() Nobody ever thought when we finished the video, ‘Oh my God, we just did something that will live on forever.’” Greenberg remembers, “We finished the video, it comes out, and people were still wondering what to do with it… Obviously everybody went away happy. It’s here that it should be noted again: Yes, they had now completed a brand-spanking new Prince video that would eventually become one of the most-seen music videos in history – but, at the time, they didn’t know that because, again, MTV wasn’t really playing videos from African-American artists. ![]() He wouldn’t be able to control the situation.” So I always knew in the back of my head that I just don’t think he’s going to do this. But, at the time, Prince hadn’t done anything outside of being onstage. It was really beautiful, a really pretty area we were filming around where we were shooting. It was him and Vanity rolling around in a red Corvette that was going to be towed around this little lake. Greenberg remembers, “Originally we were going to shoot the next day. When Vanity died in February, Prince performed “Little Red Corvette” and dedicated it to her – and, as it turned out, she was almost the co-star of the video. There was always supposed to be the stage work we see, but also another part filmed with Prince and Vanity driving around in a red Corvette. The original plan for the “Little Red Corvette” video was quite different than what was eventually produced. The deal was, they’d fly to Lakewood, Florida, where Prince was rehearing, and film a video for “Little Red Corvette” and Vanity 6’s “Drive Me Wild.” Greenberg recalls the budget was minuscule, under $20,000, “and their only stipulation before agreeing to shoot the video was that they wanted half the budget paid immediately… in cash.” ![]() found us, they called us up, and next thing you know, Beth and I are sitting in front of Steve Fargnoli, talking about doing a video for Prince.” So, as Greenberg explains today, it really wasn’t that strange to find out on short notice that he’d be flying from Los Angeles to Florida to film a music video for Prince. (It was initially supposed to have comedians in-between the videos, but that idea was quickly scrapped.) Eventually, as Nesmith became less involved, Greenberg became one of the people running the show.Įven by 1983, there weren’t a lot of people who knew how to make music videos. PopClips was the granddaddy of all music video shows and introduced the idea of VJs. Michael Nesmith (yes, the Michael Nesmith from The Monkees), had started a show for Nickelodeon called PopClips that ran weekly in 1979. Greenberg, almost strangely at that time, already had a lot of experience shooting music videos. Prince and The Revolution played Jacksonville on February 19, 1983. Bryan Greenberg, a (video) director flew in, we set up our gear at the venue in Jacksonville, and Prince threw together some choreography.” In I Want My MTV: The Uncensored Story of the Music Video Revolution, Lisa Coleman of The Revolution remembers, “We were on tour when ‘Little Red Corvette’ started doing well on radio, so we squeezed in a video. (Then a lot later.) “Little Red Corvette,” a single that would peak at number 6 on the Billboard charts, was the video that introduced the viewing public to Prince. This changed with Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean” and Prince’s “Little Red Corvette.” Prince had made a video for the song “1999,” but it received sporadic airplay, at least at first. Problem was, MTV, now notoriously, wasn’t playing music videos from African-American artists. What had been primarily promotional clips – something even The Beatles were doing in the late 1960s – were now called music videos and were catching fire thanks to MTV (or, for a large amount of people who didn’t have MTV, there was Friday Night Videos on NBC and Night Tracks on what was then called WTBS). ( Prince and Controversy were both certified platinum “I Wanna Be Your Lover” off Prince hit number 11 on Billboard’s charts.) But it was 1999 that put Prince in front of a wider audience with massive radio airplay.Īnd it was 1999 that spawned Prince’s first music videos with a real chance of being seen. ![]() The first four - For You, Prince, Dirty Mind, Controversy - all performed well. By 1983, Prince had released five albums. ![]()
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