Customer Reviews

Vanity 6

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I had the pleasure of running across Vanity 6's album. It's very entertaining. I'm only 17 years old, soon to be 18, so I know I'm a little young to remember this song. But my older sister is a huge Prince fan so I learned about them through her. The single "Nasty Girl" has always intrigued me, even at a young age and I've always wanted to hear their whole album.

It's funny, because I've been looking for the album a very long time. But it's long since out of print, which is unfortunate. Because a lot of these cookie-cutter artists could definitely pull a page and take a lesson from Vanity 6. Their intoxicatingly pop-trash hooks are an instant hit and their pornographic, bad-girl lyrics are a killer; very scandalous and controversial for the early 80's. But Prince is always good for giving his listeners a good scare or two.

"Nasty Girl," the obvious hit is probably at the top of the list for this album, but there are other stand-out tracks like "If A Girl Answers (Don't Hang up)" which is less of vocals and more of an extended interlude, where Vanity and Brenda back-talk to a boyfriend's other woman (vocals done by Prince -- so you know it's hilarious). Other great tracks include the bass-filled "Make-Up" and "Drive Me Wild." The typical 80's-esque tracks are nice too, cute hooks and more smut-laced lyrics, like "Wet Dream," and "He's So Dull."

I was also lucky to come across an unreleased track by Vanity 6 called "Vibrator." Yup, you guessed it. It's a track about the pleasures of a vibrator over an "obselete" male with no stamina. Complete with vibrating sounds and a studio-moaned orgasm! Fabulous.

These ladies were just having fun back then. Yeah the lyrics are a bit over the top but the music is pretty cool. I still hear Nasty Girl on the radio these days. Vanity, Susan, and Brenda were talented enough to still get attention after 25 years so lets lay off on some of the nasty criticism. Just have fun with it. Don't forget if a girl answers don't hang up!!

I bought this album on CD in a Wherehouse records about 15 years ago. Pretty much because I was a fan of Prince, particularly of the early to mid 80's period. I had no idea at that time that this would become so collectable one day (I've seen this sold for $75 and up and a website once offered me $50 for my copy). Aside from the "collectible" part of it, this CD is pretty average as far as the music on it. Don't get me wrong--- if you like 1999 era Prince, you'll love this. It ties in very well with 1999 and "What Time Is It" by The Time. BUT this is in no way as classic as anything on 1999. "He's So Dull" is a damn good pop song. "Nasty Girl" is top notch as well. I personally have always liked the melody of "Wet Dream"...but for the most part, this is pretty much comprised of second rate songs that Prince would have never used on one of his own albums. Highlight: Prince portraying a woman arguing with Vanity over a boyfriend on "If A Girl Answers (Don't Hang Up)". The song itself isn't all that great, but it's pretty amusing. I heard a bootleg of an unreleased Vanity 6 song called "Vibrater" once upon a time with Prince as a sales clerk which was also very funny. Overall this album isn't a classic, but it is a lot of fun. You generally get the feeling Prince was enjoying himself while making this. NOTE: This album, despite it's faults, is MUCH MUCH MUCH better than the Apollonia 6 album, where Prince apparently lost all interest in the album half-way through recording it, took away their best songs and left them with nothing but "Sex Shooter" and a lot of filler that wouldn't have even made it on to this album. It's a drag that this isn't in print....but at the same time I kind of hope the value keeps going up because one day I might be able to put my kids through college by selling it if the value keeps going up. If this helps anyone, I know there was a Canadian reissue in print a while ago (IF it still is, I have no idea). Do some searching, you might be able to track it down.

Oh my god. This album -- unbelievably hilarious. My friends and I used to listen to this in 9th grade, reciting in staccato bravado "If A Girl Answers, Don't Hang Up" -- and I just downloaded this song, honestly haven't heard it in probably 20 years, and it is even BETTER and more HYSTERICAL than it was in 9th grade...And -- I can't believe I never noticed this, but I think it is Prince acting as the other woman when the girls call "Jimmy's" house to get a ride to the party!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WTF?????? and THAT makes it SCREAMINGLY funny. 20 years later, close to my 40s, and I still get a kick out of this. That is why they call them "classics" - timeless in their appeal. Can anyone confirm if it is Prince?

In the early 80s Prince put together a girl group. This album was their only full-length release. Originally named "Vag*na" by Prince, Denise Matthews asked for her stage name to be changed, and thus she was rechristened "Vanity." With the addition of Branda Bennett & Susan Moonsie, the group itself went through a name change as well - from "The Hookers" to "Vanity 6." This one album of theirs still holds up today as some of the best product released from Prince's purple kingdom during his heydey. There is absolutely nothing deep & meaningful here... this record is 100% campy trash. The music (performed by another Price off-shoot, The Time) spans R&B, funk, rock and new-wave. All three ladies share lead "vocal" duties throughout the course of the album. "Nasty Girl," a club smash and almost-Hot-100 hit, can still be heard at clubs and in mix-shows today. Of course, it's hard to go wrong with such brilliant lyrics as "I need seven inches or more/get it up, get it up/I can't wait anymore."

"If a Girl Answers (Don't Hang Up)" is another stand out track - a hysterical rap performed by Vanity, who calls her boyfriend, only to have a girl answer the phone (played by Prince). Brenda then grabs the receiver from Vanity and lays into the "other woman" with an equally dirty, you-go-girl sassy throwdown.

The rest of the tracks are not horrible by any means - that is, if you take the recordings for what they are. These are smutty party anthems and their purpose is to entertain. I still have my vinyl copy from the 80s and I pull it out occassionally to listen. Alas, all good things come to an end, and for this group, the end came quickly. Vanity left to persue a solo career and later reclaimed her birth name, became a born again Christian and now rejects everything she did as Vanity. Her replacement in this group was Appollonia, thus leading to "Appollonia 6," a far inferior group and album than this.

Both the Vanity and Appollonia 6's recordings are long out-of-print, so if you're lucky enough to get your hands on a copy, buy it!

Of course I remember back when I first heard this song; I was still in high school (yes, the 80's), and it was not from the BHC movie either (I wasn't allowed to see it in theaters). It was at a local club a few years later. This song has not only a KILLER beat that ANYONE can dance to, but KILLER lyrics, singers, and that it was produced by Prince himself - so naturally this song WAS a winner. Still is. It rocks, baby. And I PROUDLY have several copies on CD, cassette AND mp3. A little obsessed perhaps???? Not really. But this literate one-hit-wonder was an indeed dance-club classic, similar to Eddie Murphy's dance hit class one-hit-wonder "Party all the Time". I love singing along to this hit song. And the singers are sharp, focused, and are actually VERY GOOD VOCALISTS. The music flows very smoothly throughout the song, especially the break, where the girl says, "I don't like this groove....give me something I can CROON to.....catch my drift???"



PEANUT

Denise Matthews, Susan Moonsie, and Brenda Bennett were fringe figures on the music scene until singer/songwriter/producer Prince had a brainwave and launched them as Vanity 6--a trio of lingerie-wearing, stylishly vulgar women who delighted in lyrics so obscene that many record shops and radio stations refused their recordings. Ultimately, none of the three singers could be considered gifted vocalists, and Prince's music was extremely limited by this fact. Even so, the trio's only recording, the self-titled VANITY 6, remains just as jaw-dropping today as it was twenty years ago, a mixture of funky beats, bubble-gum lace, and hilarious vulgarity.

There are eight cuts on the recording. My own favorite has always been the wickedly funny and tremendously vulgar "If A Girl Answers (Don't Hang Up)," which finds Vanity engaged in a war of words over the telephone. But several of the cuts are equally bizarre, equally trashy, and equally fun. The punk-edged "Bite The Beat," with Brenda Bennett performing the lead, makes no pretense of being about anything other than oral sex, with the notorious line "It tastes like caviar;" "Wet Dream" finds Vanity literally gushing over a high school heart throb; and "Drive Me Wild," with Susan Moonsie is essentially a musical orgasm that would make Donna Summer's "Love To Love You" blush for shame.

The trio broke up almost as quickly as they formed. An exceptionally beautiful woman, Matthews used the name Vanity and parlayed her brush with fame into a drug-fueled celebrity that ended in a major crash and burn; she has since recanted the Vanity persona and become a Christian evangelist. Moonsie and Bennett simply returned to their fringe status, albeit with considerably more cache than they had previously enjoyed. The HIV epidemic spelled an end to super-sexy, anything with anybody music of the era, and Vanity 6 was quickly forgotten. Even so, this one has so much of a "DO WHAT?" quality that it still resonates today. Certainly more for hardcore Prince collecters than any one else, but if you come across this presently out-of-print CD at a reasonable price, snap it up.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer

Length:: 2:09 Mins

I lucked out and found this cd at a used record store for 5 bucks. I was like, ok, im ripping u off.......Who doesn't have this on vinyl. Every song is good except I don't care for "3x2=6". Vanity should lay off the ballads. "He's So Dull" is played in the movie "Vacation", for any trivia buffs. You have to wonder what ever happened to Vanity, Brenda and Susan, the true sex divaz of the eighties. Just like Vanity says in one of her songs off "Wild Animal", "Vanity, vampish, I AM VAMP, I'm a woman who practices suductiveness by magic spell."....ok gurrl, u go gurrl... weird. You can't go wrong with Vanity 6 for that Prince sound. Shock all your friends and blast "Wet Dream" in the car!

Ill tell ya what if you can get your hand on a copy of this old joint itll be worth every cent!!!!This album is backed up by the man himself PRINCE.Every track on here is bangin.However there is a rare recording with some extended versions which are even better.But this one is still great.recommended!!!!!!!!!!