Penned by Prince, and originally appearing on his 1979 self-titled second LP, “I Feel For You” was covered by Chaka Khan in 1984.

Produced by the late Arif Mardin, Khan had some heavy-hitters pitch in on her now-classic recording. Melle Mel of Grandmaster Flash did the rap (unusual to hear on a pop record at the time), keyboard and guitar were courtesy of The System (“You Are In My System,” “Don’t Disturb This Groove”), while Stevie Wonder added his unmistakable harmonica and also allowed his “Fingertips” vocals to be sampled on the recording.

As it turns out, Melle Mel’s classic rap-petition of “Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Chaka Khan, Chaka Khan, Chaka Khan” at the start of “I Feel For You” was actually Mardin’s flub. In a 2005 interview with NPR’s All Things Considered the producer recalled, “As we were mounting the recording onto the main master, my hand slipped on the repeat machine … and we said, ‘Let’s keep that, that’s very interesting.’ It was an accident.”

Even back when the track was brand-new, the combination of all the different contributions (planned and otherwise) are what make Khan’s cover of “I Feel For You” so brilliant.

On November 24, 1984, “I Feel For You” reached #3 on the Billboard Hot 100, spending three weeks there and selling over 500,000 copies. The song matched Khan’s peak as part of Rufus with 1974’s “Tell Me Something Good,” which, interestingly, was written by Stevie Wonder, and was her first top-ten showing since 1976’s “Sweet Thing” topped out at #5. “I Feel For You” also enjoyed a three-week run at #1 on both the R&B and Dance charts.

“I Feel For You” began life as a Prince song, but Chaka made it a huge hit, basically claiming the tune as hers for eternity. The recording garnered them both Grammys in 1985, she for Best R&B Vocal Performance Female, and he, as songwriter, for Best R&B Song. The two artists would continue overlapping musical orbits in the years that followed, with Khan doing two of Prince’s songs on 1988’s C.K. (one of which he produced) and collaborating even more closely on 1998’s Come 2 My House, released by Prince’s NPG Records.

Purchase Chaka Khan – “I Feel For You” via iTunes, Amazon MP3.