Prince was a mastermind. All instruments by Prince. Written, arranged and produced by Prince too for his then girlfriend vanity (his ex Susan is in the white(when doves cry was written about her)-- the white girl was the wife of his stage lighting director)
"Nasty Girl" was a big hit in the dance clubs when it dropped in 1982. I remember hearing the shorter three minute edited version on the radio that year. Prince wrote the song for Vanity. He wanted her to front a girl group he was putting together and he saw her as the female form of himself. He came up with name Vanity for her and wrote most of the songs on her debut album. But she wasn't comfortable with the persona he was creating for her and she left the group after turning down the role of his love interest in the film Purple Rain. To my ears the song is stripper music rather than bedroom music. One thing to note about the promiscuous aspects of the song and that video is that in 1982 HIV/AIDS was still a mystery disease that medical researchers were still figuring out. That was an era when the sex part of "sex, drugs, and rock and roll", began to loose some of its broader appeal. At any rate, for a follow up, perhaps check out Janet Jackson "Nasty" from 1986. The video for that song features less flesh and a whole lot more dancing.
When this song came out, I was in third or fourth grade Catholic school my friends, and I didn’t know what it meant, but had a great-beat to it so we tried to sing and we got in it trouble for it
She was in probably my favorite movie of all time The Last Dragon. Fun fact: She became a born again Christian in the 90’s and gave up secular music. Good on her.
One of the amazing concerts I ever saw, Prince, The Time, and Vanity 6 live 1983 , one of those shows were you had to be in the building! Most shows with Prince, or other guys , the women were screaming and shouting during a show, but Vanity 6 had all of us guys shouting!
Put together, composed, arranged, totally by Prince himself , he put together the group, arranged how they would look and perform, did the music , everything, it was all him . I’m sure he probably was right there behind the camera this video. Fun fact , Vanity (lead singer in the black ) was supposed to be the lead love interest in the movie “ Purple Rain” , but left the protect, she was replaced by Patty Kotero, Prince named her “ Appolonia “ and changed the groups name to Appolonia 6..
