Come and play with my affection."
Apollonia 6 was a Girl Group formed by Prince which released one Self-Titled Album in 1984. It consisted of Apollonia Kotero, Brenda Bennett, and Susan Moonsie.
The project started in 1981 when Prince had the idea to form an all-female group called the Hookers, who would basically be the Distaff Counterpart to his own then-raunchy persona by performing in lingerie and singing lots of Intercourse with You songs. He entertained multiple different women for the line-up, but once he met actress/model Denise Matthews he decided to put her in front of the group, name her Vanity, and rename the band Vanity 6.
Prince wrote and performed all the music on Vanity 6's Self-Titled Album except the vocals, though he credited various parts to different names in order to downplay his involvement. Once Vanity quit the band, he found himself in need not only of a replacement lead singer but a replacement actress to play his love interest in Purple Rain. He found it in actress Patricia Kotero, who also happened to look a lot like Vanity, and he gave her the Stage Name Apollonia. And thus Apollonia 6 was born.
Apollonia 6 continued the same look and sound as Vanity 6, performing in lingerie and recording songs with names like "Sex Shooter." Wendy & Lisa and fellow Prince protege Jill Jones performed backing vocals on the album, but again Prince did all the songwriting and instrumentation despite the credits saying otherwise. The band appeared prominently in Purple Rain and toured with Prince, using members of The Time as their backing band. Nonetheless, they enjoyed only modest chart success and called it quits not long after. Prince's song choices might have had something to do with it: reportedly, he had considered "Manic Monday", "The Glamorous Life" and his duet with Apollonia, "Take Me With U", for inclusion on Apollonia 6 before he gave them to The Bangles, Sheila E., and himself, respectively. All of them were hits.
Brenda Bennett disappeared for a while but started releasing new music in The New '10s; Apollonia continued with her acting/modeling career and dropped a solo album in 1988; and Susan Moonsie dropped out of showbiz. The album is out of print and not officially on streaming, although bootleg tracks are pretty easy to come by.
Apollonia 6 Track Listing:
- "Happy Birthday, Mr. Christian"
- "Sex Shooter"
- "Blue Limousine"
- "A Million Miles (I Love You)"
- "Oo She She Wa Wa"
- "Some Kind of Lover"
- "In a Spanish Villa"
Apollonia 6 provides examples of:
- Girl Group: Three offical members, all female, though some guy did most of the work.
- Girls Love Stuffed Animals: Susan has a giant teddy bear on the album cover, which gets a mention in "Oo She She Wa Wa" as an emblem of youth: "What do you mean I'm too young? Maybe you're too old. Hey, I happen to like my teddy bear."
- Gratuitous Spanish: Since Apollonia could speak it fluently, Prince used it to full effect on "In a Spanish Villa".
- Hot for Student: "Happy Birthday Mr. Christian" is about a principal who has an affair with a teenage student.
- The Immodest Orgasm: Brenda fires one off at the end of "Some Kind of Lover". She's whispers, "I'm embarrassed", directly afterward.
- Intercourse with You: Several of them, but "Sex Shooter" is the most straightforward: "I'm a sex shooter, shooting love in your direction."
- Meaningful Name: Subverted in "Happy Birthday, Mr. Christian" since his behavior is very un-Christian. Apollonia calls this out: "Why can't you live up to your name?"
- The Minneapolis Sound: Being a Prince-produced album, this features all of his trademarks: Super-processed drums, heavy New Wave-esque synths, with a strong funk influence.
- Only One Name: Apollonia was just Apollonia while she was with the group, though she re-adopted her last name afterwards.
- Self-Titled Album
- Spoken Word in Music: "In a Spanish Villa". Apollonia makes out with a man named Oliver in a Spanish villa for the duration of the song.
- "Ooh She She Wa Wa" opens with a lengthy spoken word section. "Some Kind of Lover" also includes some as well.
- Stage Names: Apollonia got one, but the other members went by their real names.
- Teen Pregnancy: The result of the affair in "Happy Birthday Mr. Christian."
- Vocal Tag Team: Despite Apollonia being the frontwoman, the lead vocal gets passed around, as Brenda takes it on two songs and Susan on one.
