I like Joan Jett's better. It's soft side only creates anticipation for the guitar riff pay off while Prince's is too tentative, and never really pays off.

Why are you even promoting hsi syuff. he did come off as a born again homophobe awhile ago if I remember.

Good but not even close to Joan Jett's sexy rocking version

The vocals on this are terrible. He need not be using the same digital equipment as Britney Spears. It makes him look desperate to be relevant in the pop market. Joan did it WAY better.

I agree with Jeff…why?
But I also agree with everyone else. This rendition was pathetic. It sounds forced (maybe that's the autotune). It sounds like a little kid singing – he knows the words, and his voice isn't that bad, but there's no feeling, no passion, as though he doesn't know what any of it means.
It's biggest fail = it's boring.

Brilliant! Thanks 4 this! <3 Prince!

Watch it now, b4 his lawyers take it down!

Why are you featuring the work of Prince? He is a Witness, a strikingly homophobic and misogynist cult. Surely there are GLBT artists who deserve attention.

@ChristopherM: The vocal processing used in this song is not necessarily the same as Autotune (or at least used for the same effect). It is a direct reference to the original version of the song (Tommy James and the Shondells) in which portions of the refrain were processed in order to give the vocals a quivering, pronounced vibrato. You can see something similar at work in Donovan's "Hurdy Gurdy Man." It's a psychedelic thing, not a modern pop thing.

I don't like Prince as a person, but this is one of his better recordings in a very long time. Does it beat Joan's version? No. Did Joan's beat the original? No. C'est la vie. If listening to this inspires someone to go check out Tommy James' version, all the better.

wow promote the guy who thinks we are abominations,talk about lack of belief in the cause

..i wonder if a black website would promote don imus??

I stopped paying attention to Prince in 1991. Seriously. Let him stick it wherever he wants.

I personally prefer the original version by "Tommy James and the Shondells" from the 1960's…but that's because I'm very partial to most things 50's&60's. But Joan Jett did an AMAZING version of this song and has always been one of my favorites by her.
Prince's version, I don't care much for it.
I like Bruno right above me stopped paying attention to Prince after like Purple Rain.
Nothing he's done since is that great and sounds the same as everything that he's done between now and purple rain.

@ChristopherM:
Actually I think the effects are a nod to the heavy tremolo in the original version.
It is a bit boring, but the song itself is a bit of a yawn. He should stick to his own stuff.

@mb00:
I'm partial to the Diamonds and Pearls album myself.
No I don't agree with his beliefs, but I'm not going to close my eyes and ears to someone's art just because of that.

@strumpetwindsock: Thank you. Tremolo is the word that was eluding me earlier.

It's not as good as Joan Jett's version. I do like Prince, but this is not one of his best. If you would like to hear another great version of this song, Dolly Parton does an excellent take on her "Those Were the Days" album. You can't say Dolly isn't gay-friendly either!!! :)

Yeah — why support this bigoted fool ?

Does anyone have any memory cells left ??

And his version of Hendrix's version of Wild Thing in the middle? Makes my head hurt. If taking two classics that already have great covers and bashing them together is what passes for originality these days, I'd rather go door-to-door handing out The Watchtower.

Man, the guy's just not been that good since he became a Witness. Seriously, his voice here doesn't even sound like Prince–but someone doing a bad impersonation of Prince.