Songfacts®:

• In this early Prince song, he plays the fool who sticks around even though his lover mistreats him. It's one of his more traditional and straightforward lyrics, which made the song a good pick for a single. Released on his second (eponymously titled) album, it was issued as the follow-up to "I Wanna Be Your Lover" and reached #13 on the R&B chart. His next album was the more libidinous Dirty Mind, which showed his artistic progression but didn't land any significant hits. His commercial breakthrough came in 1982 with his fifth album, 1999.
• A big talking point for Prince at this time was how he played all the instruments and did all the vocals on his albums, but on this song he got some help from his touring bass player, André Cymone, who sang backing vocals but wasn't credited. It was an early example of a Prince collaborator feeling slighted. Prince explained it this way in Rolling Stone: "He sang a small harmony part that you really couldn't hear. There was a typo on the record, and André didn't get any credit."
• In January 1980, Prince made a memorable appearance on American Bandstand performing this song and "I Wanna Be Your Lover." Between songs, host Dick Clark conducted an on-stage interview that set the tone for Prince's media relations. He answered Clark's anodyne questions with very terse responses, coming off as aloof and rather odd. But the performances were quite memorable, with Prince commanding the stage and the songs introducing a fresh new sound.
  
  This appearance shows how Prince would make certain concessions, but very rarely. For one, he had to lip-synch on the show, which he didn't like. Also, he had to do the interview, something he avoided with gusto - he became famous for finding ways to elude journalists.
  
  But American Bandstand was a gateway to young pop music fans, and he wanted that audience. Still, most of his support was in the Black community at this time, and later that year he toured as the opening act for Rick James. When he did achieve superstar status, he rejected almost all interview requests and was very selective about his TV appearances. In short: He did very little that he couldn't control.