ripopgodazippa:

In the summer of ‘81, Prince began working on material for a girl group he was planning to call The Hookers before the group was even assembled.  At first, the group consisted of Prince’s personal assistant Jamie Shoop & Susan Moonsie but the album was put on hold as he embarked on the Controversy tour in November ‘81. While attending the AMA’s in ‘82, Prince meets Denise Matthew, a beautiful model & aspiring actress/singer, who was to replace Jamie as lead. The Hookers soon became Vanity 6 after Denise’s name was changed to Vanity. Prince originally wanted her name to be Vagina, but she refused. Prince found another girl on the Controversy tour, Brenda Bennett, who was working as a wardrobe girl on the tour. Vanity 6 was born, with the ‘6’ depicting the breast count of the trio.

Vanity 6’s self titled album was released in August ‘82. Four singles were released from the album with very little to no success, though ‘Nasty Girl’ became a dance club favourite. The album eventually sold close to 500,000 copies and was certified gold in ‘85. They began a support slot along with The Time on Prince’s 1999 tour and opened the shows with a brief 20 minute set. The girls were accompanied by The Time who performed unseen behind a pink curtain.

In late ‘83, Vanity quit Vanity 6 & Prince’s upcoming project Purple Rain. Many reasons have been attributed for the split, including money matters & her stormy relationship with Prince. Prince was already in the middle of recording a second Vanity 6 album when she left and had recorded ‘17 Days’, ‘Promise To Be True’, ‘Vibrator’, ‘Sex Shooter’ & an incomplete song called ‘Wet Dream’s Cousin’. Another track called ‘G-Spot’ was eventually given to Jill Jones for her album in ‘87.