Apollonia 6

With the Purple Rain movie project up and running and the lead female having opted out Prince did a casting call and found Patricia Kotero. Suspecting perhaps that Patricia 6 didn’t stand up, Prince pulled the name Apollonia out of the book The Godfather and renamed both the band and Patricia.

[Prince] used to make all these stupid jokes, 'You're the kind of chick who would wear a mink coat in the summertime.' To this day I don't have my own mink coat!

- Apollonia

No, but if look at the back of the Apollonia 6 album cover you will notice her in a swimsuit on a beach wearing fingerless gloves.

There’s so much to admire about this photo, but mainly I think it’s Apollonia’s bandmate Brenda’s hand lightly, almost casually, resting on Apollonia’s backside that makes it special. It also lets us know that although Vanity left the band, Brenda and Susan didn’t. They seamlessly carried on from Vanity to Apollonia 6.

The movie and album Purple Rain made Prince a huge star. A star who was less prone to forming girl groups and trying to call them Vagina Sex. Apollonia's two most memorable scenes in the movie (for a teenage boy) were jumping in a freezing lake sans clothes, and her sex scene with Prince. Perhaps Apollonia's career would be boosted by touring with her band?

…there's no way that any woman could attain respectability travelling around the world in her undergarments. - Apollonia, 1989

Well I guess you would feel like a bit of a tit travelling around the world and doing shows in your underwear, and you mightn’t be quite as keen to play the game for Prince as Vanity was, so you might sort of irritate your boss a bit, and he might start giving all the good songs to other people.

When Sheila E came into the scene, Prince took away the song from us and gave it to her. At that point it was like, 'Man, this is just not fair.' Since I was a newcomer, I kinda bit my tongue, but Susan and Brenda really let him have it. - Apollonia

It’s Susan and Brenda I feel sorry for. They stuck with the Prince game plan through teddy bears, lingerie and line up changes. They were on the cusp of a decent pop album, and he pulled the plug.