Daily Prince 5/3/20: Manic Monday

Pretty sure I didn’t realize that “Manic Monday” was written by Prince until after he passed away.  Then all I saw online was list after list of “Songs that you didn’t know were written by Prince” and I got annoyed because I knew damn near every other song on the list and I felt like it was just people trying to mock me for not knowing “Manic Monday.”  On the flip side, now anytime I hear the song I turn to whoever is with me and say, “Did you know it was written by Prince?” and when they didn’t I get to act incredulous like that person is the idiot.  Great times.

If you’re reading this you must have some interest in music and almost certainly know that “Manic Monday” was made famous by The Bangles in 1986.  It ended up reaching #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in April of that year, unable to overcome another Prince hit, “Kiss,” for #1.  Good choice, America.  “Kiss” is far superior.  “Manic Monday” was actually originally written in 1984 for Prince’s girl group, Apollonia 6, but he decided against it.  It would be interesting to develop a Back to the Future II-style alternate timeline and see what happened to the song and the career trajectories of those two groups had “Manic Monday” remained with Apollonia 6.

Unpopular opinion alert: I don’t love “Manic Monday.”  I don’t dislike it, but I can see why he gave it away. The chorus is shockingly unimaginative for a Prince song.  He rhymed Monday, Sunday, fun day, and run day.  Oof.  On the positive side, the song does have a melancholy melody that truly feels like a Monday morning.  I mean that as a compliment, but I’m just not sure I want to listen to “Manic Monday” any other time of the week if it’s going to make me feel like it’s Monday morning again.  I can’t imagine thinking, “Man, it’s Friday night.  You know what I’d like to do?  Turn on some music to give me that somber Monday morning vibe!”

It occurred to me that I should’ve waited until tomorrow to post this, but I can’t control which song Siri chooses.  I just go with it.  Read this on Sunday as a reminder to play it tomorrow morning when you’re getting ready for work.  I give “Manic Monday” 2 out of 5 stars.

Note to self: Figure out a cooler way to represent stars other than just typing it.  That’s my goal for tomorrow’s post.