Thread by @RhondaNicole_

What’s up, loves! My name is Rhonda Nicole and I’m a singer/songwriter and long-time Prince head. I’m absolutely over the moon to kick off this week’s special #PrinceTwitterThread all about @jilldjones and her incredible yet slept on self-titled Paisley Park debut.

A little about me...Currently, I’m the director of social media for @thenmaam. Prior to that, I was the right hand to the Fly Jock, Tom Joyner and a freelance music journalist/managing editor of the dearly departed SoulTrain dot com.

I interviewed Jill Jones for my Soul Train Artist to Artist column to chat about her third solo album, ‘I Am,’ in Feb. 2016, just days before Denise Matthews (Vanity) passed and a couple months before Prince’s death.

The original interview is gone but it’s on my website: rhondanicole.com/2021/06/29/art…

I’m so excited to join my fellow Purple Avengers for this epic #PrinceTwitterThread series devoted to the ever-marvelous @jilldjones. As always, much love and gratitude to @deejayumb and @edgarkruize for their vision and for bringing us all together!

#ICYMI check out @deejayumb’s introductory threads.
Part I is here:

https://twitter.com/deejayumb/status/1409518453329903624?s=20

And part II is here:

https://twitter.com/deejayumb/status/1409850667766845449?s=20

And now, without further ado, let’s get into the first track of Jill Jones’ eponymous @officialpaisleypark 1987 release, the tantalizing “Mia Bocca.”

The first words that come to mind when I hear “Mia Bocca” are cinematic, sophisticated, and luxurious. With Clare Fischer’s lush orchestral arrangement opening the song, it feels like a tune ripped straight from an old Hollywood movie.

“Mia Bocca” begins at the end, with the closing section of the album’s final track, “Baby, You’re a Trip,” serving as the formal introduction to the voice we’ve often heard but never in full, on its own. Here’s Jill performing that snippet in LA in 2017.

The soulful, gospel-influenced delivery lets you know that this will be unlike any other so-called Prince protégée project (I’m not a fan of the word “protégée” because it’s almost always applied to women and is reductive. I prefer the term collaborator).

Jill’s voice is sultry and seductive, commanding and assured. She steps softly into the verse, building until she literally roars at the end. No artifice, no unnecessary layering or stacking, just Jill’s pure, unadulterated, SANGIN’.

The beat drops, reminding the listener that “Mia Bocca” finds its roots in MPLS funk. It sounds familiar but fresh, w/ strings & woodwinds blending perfectly w/ Linn drum patterns, bass, & synths evocative of the theatrical pop of ‘Parade’/’Under the Cherry Moon’ the year before.

I was just shy of 13 when I first heard “Mia Bocca,” so the opening line “I have only had 1 lover since I was 12 years old” resonated with me, even if I only had a superficial understanding of temptation and playfulness as they relate to matters of the heart.

Certifiably boy crazing at that stage in my life, I absolutely felt where sis was coming from when she sang, “But there’s something about you, baby, that’s got me cuckoo.” I’m 46 and still feel that way when I look at a certain person. It’s maddening, honestly.

“Mia Bocca”’s chorus with the Italian lyrics “tu vuole la mia bocca” added a unique sonic flare. Still, it didn’t make the song any less accessible than Levert’s “Casanova” “La Bamba,” Los Lobos’ cover of Ritchie Valens’ classic, both released in '87.

While the meat of the song is pretty straight-forward lyrically and weaves a tale of a woman who is loyal to one but tempted by another, Jill takes flirtation to another level in a section of the song spoken completely in Italian:

"Sono caliente d' amore
Il mio labio sono resbaloso
Puoi toccare piano
Lo siento ma io voglio un altro..."

In a nutshell, she admits to being enticed by this would-be lover, intimating that she’s definitely feeling some thangs. She teeters on the precipice of passion and we never truly know if she gives in. A familiar dance, and she makes it feel effortless and elegant.

Fun little tidbit: Elements of “Mia Bocca” appeared in ‘Under the Cherry Moon’ during Mary Sharon’s (portrayed by Kristin Scott Thomas) lavish birthday party scene. getyarn.io/yarn-clip/e9ab…

“Mia Bocca”’s origins are not much different from many songs Prince wrote that wound up on associates’ projects. According to @princevault, Prince initially recorded the song sometime between late ‘82/early ’83. It was supposedly intended for ‘Purple Rain’ (the film).

Towards the end of 1983, Jill laid down her vocals. But the song would remain in Prince’s infamous vault awhile longer; nearly three years passed between Jill recording her vocals for the song and Prince enlisting Clare Fischer to add orchestral arrangements to it.

As @deejayumb pointed out in his introductory threads and as my Purple Avenger cohorts will no doubt revisit in subsequent threads, the album fared poorly here in the U.S., largely due to lack of promotion on Warner Bros.’ side.

It also failed to find a place on urban radio, which is a whole shame, considering how diverse Black radio was at that time.

In ‘87-’88, you had a bevy of incredible acts seamlessly bridging R&B and pop with Janet Jackson, Jody Watley, and Whitney Houston topping the charts.

You also had multi-racial and/or multi-ethnic groups like The Jets and Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam dominating urban airwaves; even Australian band INXS got play on Black radio back in the day, as did other non-Black artists like George Michael, Robbie Neville, and Exposé.

What’s more, of the top 100 R&B songs of 1987, 4 belonged to Paisley Park artists: Prince’s “Sign O’ the Times” at #11, Sheila E.’s “Hold Me” at #61, Prince’s “U Got the Look” at #85, and Madhouse’s “6” at #87.

There’s absolutely no way that a song like “Mia Bocca” from an artist like Jill Jones could not--or should not--have been a natural fit for R&B/soul and even Top 40 formats in the late ‘80s. The MPLS sound was all up and down the dial and all over music television.

And I’m saying this as someone who, in 1987, was actively consuming (listening to, buying, watching) music. #GenX

Considering how Prince played with notions of race and identity (his own and everyone else’s) in the ‘80s (it was the Lisa Bonet era), Jill’s look, energy, and attitude rivaled any of her aforementioned contemporaries.

So why was “Mia Bocca” so far off everyone’s radar? In my opinion (and let me reiterate, MY OPINION), it’s because the label didn’t see the vision.

Sure, one could argue that WB was already in the unenviable position of having to balance their marquee artist’s output with what he was pushing through his imprint. That’s fair.

But considering what the R&B/soul landscape looked like and the variety of music on the airwaves and on the charts at the time, it simply doesn’t track that the label couldn’t spare the muscle or the budget to push the project and at least give it a fighting chance.

“Mia Bocca” is infectious; it’s melodic, it’s danceable. As the lead single for an album released in the summer, it could’ve just as easily shown up on ‘Soul Train’ or ‘Club MTV’ as one of that year’s numerous memorable summer jams.

“Mia Bocca” and the album it calls home also suffered due to Jill Jones’ seeming invisibility. She wasn’t completely unknown; after all, she’d cut her teeth writing, recording, and touring with Teena Marie before ever stepping foot inside the Prince camp.

She had strong connections within the music industry, both familial and professional. (@DeejayUMB covers that part of Jill’s story in his intro threads.) By all accounts, Jill Jones had all the makings of a bona fide singing sensation…

...Except that the audience(s) that would’ve been most likely to love her (outside of the diehard Prince community) didn’t truly get to know her as an artist. And even we couldn’t claim to know her as well as we knew others from the purple world.

It’s well known that Prince assigned everyone in his universe a role, a persona. Be they bandmates, lovers, or somewhere in between, officially or unofficially, everyone had a part to play.

Bands like The Time and The Family satisfied his need for a place to house the funk and R&B output that wouldn’t make it onto his albums; the Girls 6 (Vanity, Apollonia, Susan Moonsie, and Brenda Bennett) represented a certain aspect of his idea of femininity and sex.

Sheila E. was his musical equal. Wendy & Lisa (and Susannah) were his creative partners and confidantes. And with all of them, we knew their faces and their names and whatever role we perceived them to play in Prince’s professional and personal affairs.

Jill? Honey, Jill was all of those things at the same damn time, and in some cases, for a much longer time overall than others. Her voice, her input, her contributions made for some of Prince’s greatest musical adventures.

She’s been described as his muse, his best-kept secret. And therein lies the challenge. At some point, the best-kept secret has to get out. In her case, it was only right to have her time in the spotlight. She’d more than earned it.

After years of being behind the scenes, behind the curtain, just out of sight, heard but not seen, waiting in the wings, when her moment finally arrived, there was no fanfare to welcome Jill Jones to the stage.

And that is our collective cultural loss, made all the more agonizing by the fact that her album has been out of print for so long and isn’t currently available to stream.

“Mia Bocca” (and the entire album) was perfect for a summer of coming of age, offering accessible sexuality that pushed the envelope just far enough to make me feel a little dangerous but not far enough to get me grounded.

It’s one thing to be 9, dancing around in your church clip to “Sex Shooter.” It’s another thing to be on the verge of adolescence, listening to a woman wail, “I can’t explain what’s dancing in my brain/we gotta do something..."

“Mia Bocca” also opened me up to new sounds that fueled my imagination as a young songwriter. And Jill’s vocal performance inspired me to push my voice in ways that hadn’t been possible singing along with earlier associates’ albums.

Jill’s sound, style, and sensibilities are the real deal. Thirty-four years later, “Mia Bocca” and the entire ‘Jill Jones’ album remain in rotation. Like so many purple nerds, I hope the album sees a proper re-issue and that it and Jill finally get their due.

Thanks for hanging with me for this long overdue but right on time #PrinceTwitterThread dedicated to the one and only @jilldjones. Be sure to follow the hashtag and the handle @PrinceThread. Next up, @RichardCole_NOW w/ 77 Bleeker Street on 7/7! 💗🖤