58 seconds into Prince’s acoustic demo of “I Feel For You,” and you know that you’re listening to a hit song. But not only did Grammy Award winner Patrice Rushen turn down the piece when it was offered to her, Prince also opted to not release the song as a single when it appeared on his second solo album.

Fast forward nearly half a decade and David Frank of The System has been called into an overdub session for a Chaka Khan – the soulful singer known for fronting the band Rufus. Frank had performed with Chaka prior to getting the studio call.

“I had played a little bit with Chaka Kahn before and I knew that she had done (a version) of ‘We Can Work It Out’ and it had a very elaborate Minimoog bass part (that) I had learned note for note.”

Frank took his Model D down to the famed Atlantic Studios in New York City to help with the cover of “I Feel For You” that producer Arif Mardin was working up for the next Chaka Kahn solo album.

“He brought me because I had worked with Scritti Politti. And (System guitarist-vocalist) Mic Murphy and I had written another song that was going to be on Chaka’s album called ‘This Is My Night,’ so he wanted me to play on ‘I Feel For You.’ He came up with a bassline and he just had me program and play it.

What Frank added to Chaka’s version of the song was a ripping performance that gave simultaneously gave Prince’s simple song a tight dance floor edge that was as funky as it was modern. The song gave new life to the singer’s career and would remain on the Billboard Hot 100 for 26 weeks – peaking at a career-high of number three.