Songfacts®:

• "Diamonds And Pearls" is Prince at his most accessible. It's a very easygoing love song with a well-worn storyline: He can't afford fancy things like diamonds and pearls, but he can offer his love.
  
  Musically, it's mellow R&B that gave the song cross-genre appeal - it was welcomed on radio stations in a variety of formats.
  
  Not surprisingly, the song was a hit, going to #3 in the US and topping the R&B chart. Prince's label, Warner Music, was thrilled and gave Prince and extension to his contract, but that quickly fell to pieces in a dispute over what music he was allowed to release. In 1993 he changed his name to an unpronounceable symbol and went on the offensive. In 1994 he released another very accessible song, "The Most Beautiful Girl In The World," but on his own label (NPG) to prove a point to Warners that he could make a hit whenever he wanted. As he wound down with Warners, he released a lot of music that was more experimental, and he never landed another big hit. He did come back in the public eye in 2004 with the Musicology tour, the highest-grossing tour of that year. In 2007 he played a very memorable Super Bowl halftime show.
• With the help of drum machines, Prince made many of his '80s songs pretty much entirely by himself, but in 1991 he formed a band called the New Power Generation that backed him on the Diamonds And Pearls album. This gave the album, particularly the title track, a more organic sound with live drums.
• "Diamonds And Pearls" was the third single from the album, following the funky, sexually charged "Gett Off" and the #1 hit "Cream."
• The female vocalist is Rosie Gaines, a big part of Prince's New Power Generation. You can also hear her on the chorus to "Gett Off," where she has the line, "Let a woman be a woman and a man be a man."
• The video was directed by Rebecca Blake, who also did the videos for "Kiss" and "Cream." It opens with Prince being chased by reporters, a nod to how he often kept the press at bay, refusing most interviews and often being very obtuse in the ones he granted. The two girls watching Prince play the piano were introduced in the "Gett Off" video as "Diamond and Pearl."