[READ THIS FIRST.]
Long story short: Prince Rogers Nelson was born in Minneapolis in June of 1958, and by the time he hit puberty, he had already mastered several musical instruments and written lots of his own songs. As a teenager he spent time performing with his cousin’s local band 94 East and even pitched in and co-wrote a few tracks as well. Eventually, in 1976, the eighteen-year-old Prince hooked up with producer Chris Moon and cut a demo tape containing several songs that Prince planned to shop around to the record labels. Following several knock backs from a number of labels, Prince and Moon enlisted the help of business man Owen Husney (by the way of a tentative management deal), which eventually resulted in securing a recording contract with Warner Bros. Records in 1977.
Prince wasted no time in getting started, and by the end of the year recorded his first album which for the most part it was a one man show, although Moon’s influence and willingness to collaborate resulted in a more focused project that many felt the young Prince was capable of. That album, For You, was released in April of 1978, just a few months shy of Prince’s twentieth birthday, and while it wasn’t a masterpiece, it did create enough of a buzz for Warner Bros. to negotiate a much more appealing offer for Prince to stay on, as the album’s moderate success had those very labels that snubbed him sniffing around a little too closely for Warner’s liking.
This deal would award to Prince much more than the millions of dollars that would eventually roll in as his albums began doing big business. More so, it gave the artist unprecedented power and control of his career both in and out of the studio. The label would eventually give Prince the power to sign and record any artists of his choosing, which turned out to be a stroke of luck for Prince; he would use these eventual protégés as vehicles to release even more of his own material. But I’m getting ahead of myself; let’s get back to that debut album for closer look. 
With the exception of two co-writing credits to Chris Moon, Prince wrote, performed, and produced this album in just a few months, which is a remarkable achievement when you take into account the fact that it is a self-assured and fairly well produced record that still hold up well to multiple plays today. The disc opens with the title track that is really just a short (barely over a minute) vignette that Prince used to introduce himself in voice, which was the high but slightly wispy one that he would later only use for his ballads.
Songs like “In Love” and “Just As Long As We’re Together” give Prince the opportunity to get funky and lay down some pretty raw chops that were softened by the polish added during the album’s mixing. The former is a mid-tempo love song and the latter is an up-tempo, synth-laden funk jam fashioned into a six and a half minute pop song (the first of many to come). The famous falsetto is employed throughout the record and it shines brightest on the sensual soft pop of “Baby.”
The most radio-friendly song (and my favorite) on the album is “My Love Is Forever,” which is a real highlight and sports one of his very first stunning guitar solos. “So Blue” is rare even for today as it is really just Prince backed by an acoustic guitar lamenting a lost love in that gorgeous falsetto, another true standout track. The disc closes with the first proper pop rock song of Prince’s recorded career, a stellar chunk of angry guitar licks along with a killer bridge to back his lyrics of seduction on the simply titled “I’m Yours.”
Last but not least, we have the hit single that helped this album to move in decent (if not remarkable) numbers and introduce Prince to the world of radio. “Soft And Wet” is one of the songs he wrote with Moon, and it’s really the first of many songs that would detail his sex life to great effect. It’s a cute little pop song that at best let listeners in on the kind of direction that Prince would soon be heading in.
With For You, Prince began one of pop music’s greatest and most celebrated careers ever. The fact that such a young guy could whip together a debut album of such diversity and clearly audible potential is a credit to the man himself still some thirty-five years after its release. The best of Prince, however (and so much more), as they say in the classics, was yet to come.