Synopsis

Prince performs his tender, orchestral take on the Stylistics classic in a mixture of intimate studio footage, street scenes, and images of dancers moving through Paisley Park. The visual centerpiece is a large ensemble in white leotards, whose lettered costumes form the song's title and chorus. Olympic gymnast Dominique Dawes adds a distinctive athletic presence, while brief footage of Mayte in a hospital introduces a more personal and poignant dimension. The video closes by folding performance, dance, and emotional imagery into a polished celebration of love.

Factoids & Trivia

• The video was filmed in early November 1996 at Paisley Park Studios in Chanhassen, Minnesota, and at locations around Minneapolis. It first aired on November 12, 1996.

• Around 50 dancers from New York and Los Angeles appeared in the production. Their white leotards carried individual letters that could be arranged to spell "Betcha By Golly Wow!"

• Olympic gold medalist Dominique Dawes was recruited soon after the 1996 Atlanta Games. Prince initially asked her to freestyle, but Dawes later recalled that she needed a choreographer because gymnastics training had made her movements highly structured.

• Dawes remembered the shoot lasting two or three days. She also recalled Prince personally preparing her hot chocolate at Paisley Park during the cold Minnesota production.

• The hospital footage featuring Mayte was filmed shortly after the death of Amiir, her son with Prince. This gives the otherwise celebratory video an especially somber autobiographical context.

• A 36-second commercial promoting the Emancipation album was reportedly filmed on the same day as the music video.

• The commonly circulated promotional version runs about four minutes and includes a brief clip from "Jam of the Year." A shorter edit was broadcast on the BBC program Top of the Pops.

• The song was Prince's first officially released studio cover, adapting the Stylistics' well-known version of a composition written by Thom Bell and Linda Creed.