The Rebels was Prince and his band in 'disguise'. The songs were recorded by Prince and his band at the time: Dez Dickerson (guitar), André Cymone (bass), Gayle Chapman (keyboards), Matt Fink (keyboards) and Bobby Z (drums).
The sessions were held at Mountain Ears Sound Studios, Boulder, Colorado, from July 10th to 21st 1979.
The Rebels was very much a group effort, with songwriting input by Dez and André. Two of the songs "Too Long" and "disco Away", as well as an instrumental were written Dez, while André was responsable for "Thrill You Or Kill You" and another instrumental.
Prince contributed four songs to the project. "You"' "If I Love You Tonight"' "turn Me On" and "Hard To Get".