The midnight hour was close at hand, and Lionel Richie was turning purple with frustration. It was January 1985 28 and at A&M Recording Studios in Hollywood, the great and the good of American popular music were gathered in a state-of-the-art recording suite. In an adjoining room, Richie was speaking down the line to a reluctant pop genius. “I said, “Prince, we’re all down [here] waiting on you”,” Richie would recall. “I mean, I sat on the phone with him for the longest time.”