By Amanda Wicks
There’s been an outpouring of musicians doing what musicians do best when a legend passes away: pay tribute in song. D’Angelo appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on April 26, when he added to the numerous Prince tributes by performing “Sometimes It Snows In April.”
Related: Questlove Remembers Prince as a Hip-Hop Forebearer
D’Angelo performed his cover the mournful song with “Princess” aka Maya Rudolph and Gretchen Lieberum. Wearing a white fur vest, which thanks to the stage lights took on a faint purple glow, D’Angelo sat at the piano.
The lyrics took on an especially powerful meaning: “Sometimes it snows in April/Sometimes I feel so bad, so bad/Sometimes I wish life was never ending/And all good things, they say, never last,” D’Angelo’s vocals staying relatively quiet compared to his normal funk and R&B-tinged songs. Towards the song’s end, he changed the lyrics to “I often dream of heaven/I know that Prince is there.”
This isn’t the first time D’Angelo has covered Prince. He contributed “‘She’s Always In My Hair” to the Scream 2 soundtrack.
The show’s drummer QuestLove recently penned an essay for Rolling Stone about what Prince meant to him and the legacy he helped create. He tweeted out his awe at D’Angelo’s raw performance.
i wanna thank @FallonTonight staff for letting that happen. us fans are hurting because we didn't have a "goodbye" or a chance to mourn.
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Questlove Gomez (@questlove) April 27, 2016