| Starfish and Coffee | |
| Artist: | Prince |
| Album: | Sign o' the Times |
| Recorded: | April 19–20, 1986, Galpin Blvd. Home Studio |
| Label: | Paisley Park, Warner Bros. |
| Producer: | Prince |
"Starfish and Coffee" is a song performed by Prince, and written by him and Susannah Melvoin. It is the sixth track on his 1987 double album Sign o' the Times,[1] and was based on a true story about a girl named Cynthia Rose that went to the same school as Susannah and Wendy Melvoin. Susannah, Prince's girlfriend at the time, would receive a writing credit for the lyrics on the track due to the story that she told of Cynthia.
During the early sessions for what would eventually become Sign o' the Times, Prince and Susannah Melvoin would often tell each other stories of their childhood memories. At one point, Susannah brought forward a story of Cynthia Rose, a girl that she and her twin sister Wendy used to know at their school. Cynthia was often ignored by classmates, but Susannah took a special interest in learning more and more about Cynthia. Whenever Cynthia was asked what she had for breakfast, her response was often "starfish and pee pee". Susannah would further explain this odd answer:
Prince would become so fascinated with the story that he felt he had to make it into a song, on one condition: the phrase "pee pee" had to be replaced with a different word, which would become "coffee".[2] Susannah agreed, and after writing down what she had told him on a piece of paper, he went to his home studio and began recording the song. To give the song its magical and unusual feel as depicted in the lyrics, harp sounds were created on synthesizers, while Prince's initial drum kit was doubled with a reversed LM-1 drum loop. After spending ten hours recording with engineer Susan Rogers, the latter woke Susannah up to listen to the track, and Prince, with a smile, simply stated "here it is!".[2] The couple both found to have loved it when they listened to it, and it would remain a part of album configurations for Prince's next album until it was eventually released in March of 1987.
The track would later serve to be the inspiration behind the website of the same name by Susannah, with a page dedicated to the song's creation.[2] Merchandise is sold on the website with numerous references to the song, and pictures and drawings are made of both Cynthia Rose and Susannah.
Credits from Duane Tudahl, Benoît Clerc and Guitarcloud[3] [4] [5]