(I didn't know that Prince wrote
I Wanna Be Your Lover
I Feel For You
About/for Patrice Rushen cause he had a crush on her and was trying to holla.
I Wanna Be Your Lover is the first track on Prince’s second album Prince, and, two months prior to the album’s release, I Wanna Be Your Lover was released as the album’s first single. In 1993, the track was included as the third track on Prince’s compilation album The Hits 2 (also included as the second disc of The Hits / The B-Sides). In 2001, the track was included as the first track on the compilation album The Very Best Of Prince. In 2006, the track was included as the first track on the first disc of the compilation album Ultimate. In 2002, a live version (titled Wanna B Ur Lover) was also included as the seventh track on the second disc of One Nite Alone... Live!, Prince’s first live album (along with Xenophobia, Extraordinary, Avalanche, Family Name, Raspberry Beret, The Everlasting Now, Diamonds & Pearls, The Beautiful Ones, Nothing Compares 2 U and How Come U Don’t Call Me Anymore from the same show).
While specific dates are not known, the track was most likely recorded in April 1979 at Alpha Studios in Burbank, California. Overdubs and mixing took place at Hollywood Sound Recorders in Los Angeles, California in June 1979. The liner notes on The Hits 2 (and The Hits / The B-Sides), written by Alan Leeds, state that I Wanna Be Your Lover was "originally recorded as a demo 4 Patrice Rushen’s album. PRN had a mad crush on her at the time and the song is about her." Rushen did not re-record her own version of the song however. I Feel For You was also written about and for her in 1978. I Wanna Be Your Lover may have been written around the same time but it has not been verified.