About The Song
“Kiss” is a song composed, written, and produced by American musician Prince. Released by the Paisley Park label as the lead single from Prince and the Revolution’s eighth studio album, Parade (1986), on February 5, 1986, it was a No. 1 hit worldwide, holding the top spot of the US Billboard Hot 100 chart for two weeks. The single was certified gold in 1986 for shipments of 1,000,000 copies by RIAA.
The song is ranked No. 85 on the Rolling Stone list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time in 2021, No. 464 in 2010, and No. 461 in 2004. NME ranked the song at No. 4 in their list of The 150 Greatest Singles of All Time, and voted “Kiss” the best single of 1986.
Following Prince’s death in April 2016, the song re-charted on the Billboard Hot 100 at No. 28 and jumped to No. 23 a week later. The song also reached No. 2 on the French Singles Chart. As of April 30, 2016, it had sold 1.33 million digital copies in the U.S.
Age of Chance and Art of Noise also released versions of the song that were critical and chart successes.
Robert Hilburn from Los Angeles Times wrote, “The single combines an ever-so-cool update of a classic James Brown guitar-accented funk riff with witty lyrics that suggest a bit more humility in Prince’s sexually aggressive posture. You don’t have to be rich to be my girl, he advises. You don’t have to be cool to rule my world. Even the put-downs are tinged with humor: Act your age, not your shoe size, he tells one prospective lover.”
The accompanying music video for “Kiss” was filmed on February 13, 1986 at Laird International Studios in Culver City, California,[19] and directed by Rebecca Blake. In the plot of the video, Prince appears in a half shirt and leather jacket and then shirtless and performs dance choreography in a hall. The trousers he wears are strip-off pants. He is accompanied by the veiled dancer Monique Mannen wearing black lingerie and sunglasses while Revolution member Wendy Melvoin sits playing guitar.
“Kiss” is widely considered one of Prince’s finest songs. In 2016, Paste ranked the song number two on their list of the 50 greatest Prince songs, and in 2022, American Songwriter ranked the song number three on their list of the 10 greatest Prince songs.
In 2022, it was included in the list “The story of NME in 70 (mostly) seminal songs”, at number 28: Mark Beaumont wrote that with this song, “Prince took his crown while the Hip-Hop Wars raged”
Video
Lyrics
Uh
You don’t have to be beautiful
To turn me on
I just need your body, baby
From dusk ’til dawn
You don’t need experience
To turn me out
You just leave it all up to me
I’m gonna show you what it’s all about
You don’t have to be rich
To be my girl
You don’t have to be cool
To rule my world
Ain’t no particular sign
I’m more compatible with
I just want your extra time and your
Kiss
Ah, oh-oh
You got to not talk dirty, baby
If you wanna impress me (ah)
You can’t be too flirty, mama
I know how to undress me, yeah
I want to be your fantasy
Maybe you could be mine
You just leave it all up to me
We could have a good time, uh
Don’t have to be rich
To be my girl
You don’t have to be cool
To rule my world
Ain’t no particular sign
I’m more compatible with
I just want your extra time and your
Kiss
Yes, oh-oh-oh-oh
Ah
I think I wanna dance
Uh
Ooh
Gotta, gotta, oh
Little girl Wendy’s parade
Gotta, gotta, gotta
Women, not girls, rule my world
I said they rule my world
Act your age, mama (not your shoe size)
Not your shoe size
Maybe we could do the twirl
You don’t have to watch Dynasty
To have an attitude, uh
You just leave it all up to me
My love will be your food
Yeah
You don’t have to be rich
To be my girl
You don’t have to be cool
To rule my world
Ain’t no particular sign
I’m more compatible with
I just want your extra time and your
Kiss