Prince’s “When Doves Cry” Was Written About Famous R&B Singer Most Never Knew He Dated

Posted On : March 23, 2015

It’s never been a secret that the beloved Prince, had a way with the ladies. There was one woman in particular though, who meant so much to him, that he wrote one of his most iconic hits about her. His 1984 classic,”When Doves Cry,” was about his high school sweetheart, who was also still the love of his life at that time. She is an R&B singer that we all know, but what many of us didn’t know, was that the two were together for years. Get your scroll on to see who she is…

The High School Sweetheart Prince Wrote When Doves Cry About

It’s one-third of Vanity 6/ Appollonia 6Susan Moonsie! She was the quiet persona of the trio and Prince actually created Vanity 6 around her, when he put the group together. He allegedly wrote the song about their up and down relationship and it’s also alleged that Prince wrote the song, “Private Joy,” about Susan Moonsie as well.

http://vintagewoc.tumblr.com/post/157366002130/susan-moonsie-1980s

Prince’s intentions were to have Susan be the lead singer of Vanity 6, but she didn’t want to be the lead, so that’s why we saw Vanity and then Appollonia singing lead all of the time.

Those who were close to them say their relationship was rocky- they would break up, then make up and then break up again, but they allegedly loved each other deeply. Like we said, they were high school sweethearts first, before the fame and money, so maybe that’s why their love was so unbreakable. Unsurprisingly, their relationship often had issues because of Prince’s alleged relationships with a few other singers who came onto to the scene after Susan. Allegedly she thought Prince was cheating on her when he started becoming attracted to Vanity around 1983. Insiders say that’s when Susan ended the relationship and she even became close friends with Vanity.

Then there’s this other singer who close friends of both of them have allegedly said ended their relationship again, and that’s when Prince started messing around with…

Susannah Melvoin (R); her twin sister and Prince's guitarist Wendy (L)
Susannah Melvoin (R); her twin sister and Prince’s guitarist Wendy (L) (screen-grab)

Susannah Melvoin (the twin sister of Prince’s Revolution, guitarist, Wendy Melvoin) in 1984. There is no confirmation on which relationship actually deadened Prince’s and Susan Moonsie’s relationship for good though. Susannah was the one who co-sang the popular song, “Screams of Passion,” back in the day. Here’s the video:

It was also said that in 1985, Prince wrote “Nothing Compares 2 U” (the song eventually covered by Sinead O’Connor) about Susannah Melvoin. Prince was a busy brotha, wasn’t he?

Now here’s one more Old School fun fact that most of us never knew. There was another popular 80’s hit that had a line in it about Prince’s ex-girlfriend, Susan Moonsie. We all know this song, it was Timex Social Club’s hit song, “Rumours.” The line about Susan Moonsie was: “Did you hear that one about Susan, some say she’s just a tease. In a camisole she’s six feet tall. She’ll knock you to your knees.” This fact was confirmed by Timex Social Club founding member/ songwriter, Marcus A. Thompson. Wow…Susan was highly sought after back in the day.

About I Love Old School Music

We salute the incredible people and beautiful memories of that "old school". We’re not saying that every artist and every facet of the soul era was perfect, but the artists’ contributions to soul music and the old school memories of that particular time are PRICELESS.