The eighth Prince album ‘Parade’ was released in 1986. It has twelve songs on it. Is it any good? Mate, spoiler alert! You’ll find out if I think it’s a stinker when I list the 2025 Necessary Evil albums of the year!
Previously though, I have included tracks from Prince’s albums in my Legit Bosses countdowns of the best songs of the year. But that’s not really fair, is it? When He was listed as the joint best song of 2024 people were piiiiiiiiiiiissed!
So I’m going to give Prince His own dedicated countdown, at least in the near future, simply ranking all the songs that He recorded between His last album, 2024’s ‘Around the World in a Day‘, and 2025’s ‘Parade’. So, ranking ‘Parade’s twelve tracks, right?
Well… no… I could never settle on an exact number, but Prince recorded somewhere between 60 and 100 original songs in the eleven month period between the two albums. Eleven of them would appear on ‘Parade’; one would appear on His 1987 album ‘Sign ‘O’ the Times’; a handful would appear on future albums; some were given to protegees and other artists (including one that was famously taken the fuck back); and many are instrumental jams that were… maybe… never going to be released, but Prince was planning an instrumental jazz album at the time so it’s impossible to say.
We are now entering Prince’s most prolific period: in the next two or three years He would plan and then cancel at least four separate albums, countless side projects, a damn play, He would split up His band, start to question whether Warner Brothers were working in His best interests; and launch a near impossible to count number of failed protégées. It’s quite a ride.
Oh, and that 23rd April 1985 (when ‘Around the World in a Day’ was released) to 31st March 1985 (‘Parade’) timeline is occasionally loosely applied by a week or so (and, in one case, two fucking months). I’ve gone with the first recording of each song, as otherwise we have no idea (so, obviously, thanks a billion to https://princevault.com/.
Here’s the YouTube playlist, you lazy bastards.
unreleased – recorded 28th December 1985
The first issue you run into when scouring through the troves of material that Prince left unreleased in His Vault is that you’re often unsure of exactly what it is you’re listening to some of the time. How much of an actual song should you consider this piece of music? If these songs were never released at any point during Prince’s life (which some of the songs on this list were decades later), then He would probably argue that they were never finished, never saw their full potential, and so should never be considered at all. Yet we’ll never know which unreleased and secreted tracks might have been something incredible at some point in the future, and which tracks were just Prince (and occasionally His band) just fucking about in the studio. And then on top of that, you hear something like the incredible, 16 minute Billy (edited down from a forty minute original session) – as clear an example of pissing about as you’re likely to hear – and think “Fuck it, I want it all, it’s all good”. I’m sorry, that’s a song.
However, there are many instrumental, heavily jazz influenced tracks that I just feel completely unqualified to judge. Songs – or ‘songs??’ – like Groove in C Minor, Madrid and Junk Music were all recorded in this 11 month period and are astonishingly accomplished musical pieces. They’re all obviously from improvised jam sessions, but isn’t a lot of jazz like that? There were plans for Prince to release a jazz-funk instrumental album in 1986 as part of ‘The Flesh‘, so there’s a good chance that many of these far more challenging and avant garde instrumentals were actually far more likely to have been officially released than many of the deep cut pop classics we’ll be running into on this list. The production quality and recording cleanliness on a lot of these records is definitely release quality.
But, mate, I am waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay out of my depth here. I’ve decided to just give Run Amok a shout because it slaps. Boom-da-bumbum! Boom-da-bumbum! It’s a bop, bro! And it was recorded on my birthday. What more do you want from me?
First released on 2020‘s ‘Sign O’ The Times Super Deluxe Edition‘ – 30th January 1986
OK! We’re back in my wheelhouse! A euphoric pop song that shares a lot of DNA with the ‘Sign ‘O’ the Times’ track It’s Gonna Be a Beautiful Night. Written while Prince was scoring the disastrous/genius/misunderstood/shite ‘Under the Cherry Moon movie, and inspired by a scene where Christopher Tracy says the title to a Venus De Milo statue, because that’s the kind of movie we’re dealing with here. Except – d’oh! – that scene was deleted from the movie, so what the fuck do you do with this song now??
As will be the case for a number of these tracks, Wonderful Day was at one time considered for the mythical ‘Dream Factory‘ album – the planned double album follow-up to ‘Parade’ which merged into the triple album ‘Crystal Ball‘ and eventually back down to the double album ‘Sign ‘O’ the Times’ – as we enter Prince’s Golden Age of cancelled projects. Apparently, Wonderful Day only ever existed on the ‘Dream Factory’ tracklisting as a placeholder until a more suitable song came along (which, goodness me, eventually it did), which betrays how slight and weightless it is. This isn’t even Prince on autopilot, this is Prince’s filled pause before He decides to go on autopilot, and the fact it’s still such a fun little pop song is incredible.
unreleased – 26th May 1985
The only version that exists is a bit ‘recorded on a potato’ quality, which is thankfully rare in the era of Prince’s home studio, but the quality of the song still shines through. Apparently considered for ‘The Dawn’ musical, another cancelled project, and one that next to no information exists on. There’s a near interpolation of Automatic, and perhaps the two songs’ similarity was the reason someone as duplicaphobic as Prince abandoned the song. Prince likely conceived, wrote and performed this song on the 25th May 1985 and never once thought about it ever again. And 40 years later there’s this fat fuck in Manchester complaining about its audio quality and screaming “Ay, Prince, what happened to that musical, yo??“. Thank God He’s dead, otherwise this would be insanely creepy.
37 Killin’ At the Soda Shop (Jill Jones)
unreleased – 27th May 1985
“Hey Prince, thanks so much for including me on your conveyor belt of protegees that will inevitably fail, do you have any songs you’re thinking of including on my 1987 debut album?”
“No probably, Jill. How about a batshit 1950’s rock and roll pastiche that explicity tells a story of someone getting stabbed at a diner?”
“Errrrrrrrrrm… I’m not sure Prince, maybe don’t include that one on the album?”
“…”
“Hello, Prince?”
“…Sorry, I’ve already moved on. Who are you again?”
‘Parade’ (1986)- 14th July 1985
Holy shit! This song was actually released! The first appearance of the only actual album that Prince put of in this period, Do U Lie? is a little bit silly – a near comical French pastiche to match the setting of the ‘Under the Cherry Moon’ film – but still so bursting with melody and creativity that it ends up utterly charming.
There is a moment in the ‘Under the Cherry Moon’ film where Christopher (Prince) is arguing with Mary (Kristin Scott Thomas) and just shouts “Do you lie??”. Like… what?? Who speaks like that?? Did the song title come before the script, or vice versa?? I need to know!
‘Sheila E.‘ (1987)- 23rd March 1986
Let me tell you ’bout this club I know
They got all the men
All the dough
They really can’t dance and they ain’t too bright
But the girls don’t mind if the money’s rightSome are cute and some are not
But that don’t matter ’cause the music’s hot
Can’t help dancin’ when you feel the beat
You can’t help watchin’ ’cause you feel the heatA girl with four legs, that’s the best
You better look twice
There’s someone under her dress
Also actually released (*cough* on a Sheila E. album *cough*)!
Appearing on Sheila E.’s third album in 1987, so Sheila could definitely tell Jill Jones a thing or two about the viability of a career as a Prince protégée.
I joke, I joke: Sheila E was an incredibly accomplished musician completely in her own right. Somewhat of a child prodigy on the drums, Sheila was the daughter of acclaimed percussionist Pete Escovedo and has two brothers who also became acclaimed percussionists. A family of acclaimed percussionists, is what I’m saying. Have I said “acclaimed percussionist” enough? Can you imagine how noisy that house was growing up? Honestly, I hope for her own sake that the mother was deaf.
Co-written by Sheila E. herself (Prince was uncredited for his production, instrumentation and co-writing), so it’s difficult to know exactly who’s to blame for the box of frogs lyrics. And is that apostrophe in the title correct? Or is it a club belonging to specifically one boy? Who day boy?
‘Jill Jones’ (1987) – 10th May 1985
Just because
You drive the baddest car in town
Don’t say that you can take me for a ride
Just because
I kiss you in front of my friends
Baby, don’t you play around with my pride
Also actually released (*cough* on a Jill Jones album *cough*)!
While not as violently loony as Killin’ At the Soda Shop, My Man still betrays a lot of the 1950’s aesthetic that Prince obviously had a real vision of for Jill Jones for some reason, right down to the Marilyn Monroe referencing album artwork. Whatever, it’s not for us to question genius: if it works it works.
Oh.
Credited to ‘Joey Coco’ though, which as pseudonyms go is pretty badass.
unreleased – 6th September 1985
I don’t really wanna know
What I really mean 2 u
I’d rather u just walk out the door and go!
I don’t wanna feel the pain
I don’t wanna see the rain
I don’t wanna hear your vain excuses or reasons why
This is just… a really great song?? That was never considered for inclusion on any of Prince’s many cancelled projects nor for release in any form?? Despite being worked on in the studio on three different occasions, often in rehearsals and apparently (according to engineer Susan Rogers) the result of a lot of time and effort from Prince?? What do you even say about this?? Did He just make this gorgeous pop song as a hobby?? What the fuck, man? Fuck you, Prince.
Credited to ‘Percy Begonia’ though, which as pseudonyms go is pretty… what…?
unreleased – 10th July 1985
Maybe she’ll call me (Neon telephone)
Maybe she won’t (Maybe she won’t)
And if she don’t (Neon telephone)
I’m gonna lose my mind (This time I’m gonna lose my mind)It’s kinda dark in here (Neon telephone)
I need a light (It’s 2 bright)
I could use a sexy situation that would do my body just right
2night I’m gonna lose my mind
The Prince version was never released, I should clarify. Recorded and considered for the ‘Parade’ album in 1985, it was shelved for potential future release, until Prince started offering it to other artists in his orbit. The Jets turned it down, and Lisa Coleman has stated that the song was passed “from artist to artist in his own camp – always female” but didn’t name which artists these were. It finally was taken on by forgotten Los Angeles band The Three O’Clock and their (admittedly superior) version would eventually end up on the band’s 1987 fourth and final album.
It’s a legitimately incredible song with a crazy final third breakdown that pushes it into genius. It’s only as low as this because Prince’s version is probably the inferior one. Maybe it’s just not as easy to believe that there’s a girl somewhere that isn’t interested in ringing back fucking Prince.
The Hits / The B-Sides (1993); Sign O’ The Times Super Deluxe Edition (2020) – 27th June 1985
Minor G is the chord of pleasure
It will be played eleven measures
You will see fire but you’re cool as ice
You lie if you say this isn’t nicePower fantastic
Is in your life at last
You’re a little apprehensive
What it is, is what you want and need
OK, I am literally dead.
This beautiful, sophisticated and delicately divine track is technically the final ever release from Prince and the Revolution. Recorded in 1986, and one time mooted for the ‘Parade’ follow-up ‘Dream Factory’, The Revolution would break up a few months later. When it eventually turned up as one of two previously unreleased songs compiled onto the ‘B-Sides’ disk of the 1993 collection, it officially became the last Prince and the Revolution song to be released while Prince was still alive. Wendy Melvoin and Lisa Coleman composed the instrumental Carousel while Prince wrote the lyrics, until the whole band managed to create the majesty of Power Fantastic in a single take.
‘Jill Jones’ (1987) – 1st March 1986
Holy shit, is that Jill Jones debut album actually a lost classic? There are more banging pop songs on it than Katy Perry has released in her entire career.
Sign O’ The Times Super Deluxe Edition (2020) – 30th May 1985
And they sound the same in hell, they sound the same
You want a place in heaven
Maybe you’re already there
Life’s what you make it, stop whining baby
Love comes to those who care
Versions with both Prince and Lisa Coleman taking lead vocal exists, and you can include either in this place if it suits you.
Considered as the 10th track, then the 18th track, then the 12th track on ‘Dream Factory’, before The Revolution’ disbanded and the project was abandoned. Place in Heaven is an almost impossibly sweet take on the afterlife that includes some very cute lines (“Let’s not be lazy, there’s no room service”) and some downright disturbing ones (“There must be children in heaven/Ones who know nothing from hate/Three year-old leaders of all colors/I’d feel safer with them in control, control, control, control/Three year-olds in control”). Really, Prince? Really? So heaven is some sort of extreme Logan’s Run scenario with the ruling caste made up exclusively of toddlers and you’re cool with that?
offered as an mp3 download as part of NPG Music Club Edition # 1 (2001) – 1st August 1985
A fabulous little curio, a part Bond theme, part reggae, all fabulous Revolution song that was never considered for any album at the time but would improve literally every album ever.
The fucking NPG Music Club though!! Don’t worry, we will get to the NPG Music Club! In, like, 15 years, but we’ll get there! The idea of an artist launching an online only subscription service so that fans can directly access their music without the need for a record label might sound like a neat wat of bypassing Spotify’s artistic executions and genocide support in 2025, but the NPG Music Club was launched in 2001! Freaking MySpace was still two years away! It was a bit of a mess, and far from perfect, but the main issue was with Prince being – as per – years and years ahead of His time (there were still 3.2 billion CDs sold in 2001. In 2024 there were 10.8 million).
Anyway, looking forward to discussing all this in full in 2040. I’ll be dead by then, no question, but we’ll have all uploaded our consciousnesses to the Singularity by that point. I’ll still be paying my WordPress subscription though.
unreleased – 29th May 1985
Another Jill Jones joint, another that’s weirdly 1950’s rock and roll adjacent (unfortunately not a Cliff Richard cover); another great little song that wasn’t even eventually included on the freaking ‘Jill Jones‘ album. It’s such a perfect little blast of pop punk that Prince would likely feel far above releasing Himself (and, evidently, for anyone at all) but speaks to the utter control of pop and melody that He possessed.
Sign O’ The Times Super Deluxe Edition (2020) – 26th December 1985
His shit was the most exciting music I was hearing in 1982… Here was someone who was doing something different, so I decided to keep an eye on him. … His music is new, is rooted, reflects and comes out of 1988 and ‘89 and ‘90. For me, he can be the new Duke Ellington of our time if he just keeps at it.
OK, it’s a hotly contested title, but Can I Play With U might have the most tortuous release process of any song on this list. The TL:DR is that Prince did a song with Miles fucking Davis and never fucking released it!!
Miles Davis signed for Warner Brothers in the mid 1980s after 30 years on Columbia, and Warner naturally asked their biggest star at the time if He would want to contribute a song to Davis’s first record on the label (which would eventually become ‘Tutu‘). Prince obviously jumped at the chance to work with one of His heroes. However, He was extremely reticent at sharing a studio with Miles Davis, and understandably not sure how He’d feel about giving instructions to one of the all time Jazz legends. Instead, Can I Play With U was finished in the studio in December 1985 and sent to Miles in January 1986, with Miles sending his trumpet part back a month later.
Prince heard the finished product and thought… nah. It was shelved, with neither Prince nor Miles truly believing in the finished product or that it fit in with the album. I haven’t heard ‘Tutu’, but maybe fondling requests aren’t in the wider album’s themes.
After Miles’s Death in 1991, Warner Brothers asked Prince if he would contribute the recording to the posthumous record ‘Doo-Bop’, but Prince again refused, stating that He wasn’t interested in contributing a track He didn’t believe showed Miles at his best. Judging by the reviews of the hastily put together ‘Doo-Bop’ album, this was obviously not so much a concern for Warner Brothers. In 1999, during a Love4oneanother.com (oh, we will get to that website! In approximately 2036 👍) question and answer session (‘? of the Week’ – essentially ‘The Purple Hand Files‘) someone asked about any recordings with Miles Davis and was told “it sounds as u would xpect: chaotic and beautiful! Its release depends on the length of The War”. ‘The War’ being Prince’s ‘War’ with Warner Brothers. This was pre 9/11, Americans had no fucking idea what a war was. It was then scheduled to appear on a 2001 box-set of Miles Davis’s Warner Brothers recordings, but that also never happened.
So Miles Davis and Prince did a song together and both the fuckers had to die for us to hear it!!
NPG Audio Show # 11 /’Graffiti Bridge’ (1990 )- 28th December 1985
OK, biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit of a cheat. A minor cheat. A tiny cheat.
What was actually recorded in the time period was the instrumental 12 Keys, which had overdubs in July 1986 and likely had vocals added in October 1987. The track was dug out again for redubs in March 1990, and it’s this edited and redubbed version that appears on the ‘Graffiti Bridge’ album.
1990’s pretty universally maligned* ‘Graffiti Bridge’ movie is a sequel to Prince’s world domming movie of six years previous, and in it The Question of U plays a similarly central role to the title track of the ‘Purple Rain’ film, suggesting that Prince really expected for the song to become an iconic anthem of similar standing. Which, lol, yeeeeeeeah no. But it’s a smooth and lyrically strong piece of swing funk.
(*I have seen it once a long time ago, and remember that as soon as the credits rolled I realised that I couldn’t recall a single thing that had happened in the movie. This may have been during my drinking days though, so pinch of salt (lime, tequila) and all that. See you all in 2029 👍)
24 The Ballad of Dorothy Parker
‘Sign ‘O” the Times’ (1987) – 13th March 1986
Eeee gads. A lot of people aren’t going to like this placing. It’s not uncommon for people to say The Ballad of Dorothy Parker is the greatest Prince song ever, and I don’t even rank it amongst the top 20 songs that He recorded in that eleven month period.
And I get that: the song might be the ultimate example of Prince aura farming. It’s so light, so breezy, so nonchalant, yet still manages to sound like some next level evolution of song composition that we don’t quite understand yet but would become the norm some time in the distant future. We’re still not quite there yet: Frank Ocean’s ‘Blonde‘ aimed for similar vibes, still sounded futuristic in 2016, and would kill for a song as good as Dorothy Parker. The strange, gloopy and muted quality of the music is a technical error – it was the first song Prince recorded at His new Galpin Boulevard Home Studio, and the technicians couldn’t get the console to function properly*. However, since the song had come to Prince in a dream, He ended up believing that the woozy, underwater quality suited the song perfectly. It might be the ultimate example of Prince’s innate, effortless genius. It’s often said of great artists that “They could create great [X] in their sleep”. Dorothy Parker sounds like it was composed, recorded, conceived, raised an educated in a 5 minute nap.
(*in case you’re wondering, according to engineer Susan Rodgers, “I got the voltmeter and saw that one half of the power supply’s rails were down. Instead of bipolar [+/-] 15 volts, we just had 15 volts. We had half the headroom, and half the frequency response”. Don’t say I never teach you anything)
But… I don’t love it. It’s always been a bit too breezy for me. Too smooth, too syrupy, not enough to hold onto or to really excite. I know, I know, this opinion makes me sound like a complete artistic imbecile, but I still believe that Dorothy Parker is more admirable as an experimental artistic flex rather than a truly compelling piece of music. Oh, and if you say it’s your favourite Prince song you’re totally bullshitting and need to get over yourself. That art student you like is not going to have sex with you.
Why ‘Dorothy Parker’ though? Did Prince see a kindred spirit in the multitalented and multidisciplined poet, writer, activist? Did He want to give an official shout out to her famous sardonic wit from the black community after learning that she left her estate to Rev. Martin Luther King Jr after her 1967 death? Did He, being Prince, just think that she was filthy cute and baby she knew it?
Nah, he just heard the name and thought it sounded neat.
#Aura
23 I Guess It’s All Over (Mazarati)
‘Mazarati’ (1985) – 10th May 1986
Yes, that’s right, Mazarati higher than The Ballad of Dorothy Parker, are we going to have a problem here?
What do you mean “Who the fuck’s Mazarati?”??
OK, a few months ago I had no idea either, but they were a R&B band from (you guessed it) Minneapolis put together by Revolution bassist Brownmark. The Prince link meant that they were signed to Paisley Park records and had Him contribute to a few bangers. I Think It’s All Over only contains Prince’s lyrics, with Brownmark being responsible for the rest of this sultry soul drop of honey.
Today, Mazarati are probably more famous for what they didn’t do: the month before I Think It’s All Over was recorded, Prince handed the band an acoustic blues song that He’d come up with but couldn’t get it to work Himself. The next day, Prince visited their studio again, saw that Brownmark and Mazarati had transformed the song into a funk banger and said “Yoink! Yeah, I’m having that back actually. I can give you some lyrics if you want though?”.
That song was only Kiss though, so I don’t see how it would have made a difference to the band’s career.
‘Parade’ (1986) – 18th November 1985
Back to the ‘Parade’ album (we’ll be hearing from it quite a lot. It’s pretty good) and a bass intro that will make your entire DNA get an erection. Also, fact fans, sung by Wendy Melvoin, meaning it’s the first officially released Prince song to not have Him as the lead vocal. Originally recorded as a duet, but Prince stripped His vocals out much like He’s stripped the bass out of When Doves Cry, proving again that His genius was as much about what to take out as it was what to put in.
unreleased – 23rd July 1985
We start the day
With the 9 4 the 5
We play it loud
So they know we’re alive
U show ur body
They call U obscene
But U R free
U know we R free
For one of the most celebrated guitarists of all time, Prince so rarely left His riffage truly fly over truly meaty hard rock tracks. The guitar was just one of the instruments that Prince was world class in, so He obviously felt that centring a song solely around chucky riffs and electrifying solos was far too inhibiting. It might explain why Call of the Wild – a thrilling rock workout that both Hendrix and Zeppelin would have killed for – was never released, never really considered for release, and never played live.
unreleased – 26th May 1985
It’s one thing to not make it onto a Prince album, but to not make it onto a Jill Jones album??
Jill Jones features on backing vocal on this shockingly complete piece of pop magic, and it was another classic in waiting that was considered for inclusion on Jill’s eponymous 1987 album. However, after flipping a coin, Prince decided to instead never release it for the next 40 years, despite dying 31 years into that period. Tough call.
When the former WCW champion – and possibly one of the most feted monster heel wrestlers of the late 20th century – Leon ‘Big Van Vader’ White came to the WWF in 1996, WWF owner Vince McMahon wanted to rename his exciting new talent in order to gain more control of his image (and, importantly, his merchandise rights). He wanted Leon to make his big debut at WWF at The Mastodon!! No way, said Leon White, that’s dumb as shit, I’ll just be ‘Vader’ like I am literally everywhere else, thank you very much. Vader had a pretty miserable time at WWF, the one blot on a truly legendary career in both America and Japan, and Leon White claims that was due to Vince never truly getting behind him after he rejected the ‘Mastodon’ rebranding.
Prince wanted Jill Jones to rename herself ‘Elektra’ as a stage name, but she refused and wanted to use her real name. Was it all downhill from there? Was this classic never released out of spite? “Oh, well, OK, guess you won’t be needing this song then. I mean, it doesn’t really make sense now, does it?” *Prince storms off to his room, slams door*
unreleased – June 1985
Seriously, I’m getting fucking sick of Jill Jones now…
At least this song didn’t make it onto Jill’s second album, rather than not making it onto that fucking 1987 debut which I’m tired of talking about. I mean… it didn’t get onto that debut album either, I just mean… OK, I’ll try and explain:
4 Lust was considered as a Prince-penned track for Jill Jones’s second album, and was recorded with Jill as the sole vocalist sometime in 1988. However, in 2011 Jill posted a Facebook post linking to a YouTube video that released the song had originally been a duet between her and Prince, which the archivists date to around June 1985. A gorgeous synth sex jam, that still manages to portray raging restraint and caged passions. It’s better than every song your favourite artist has ever released and He didn’t even release it!
But even without the Prince singing, it would still be a killer tune, so why was it still not even included on Jill Jones’s second album??
Oh yeah. That project was shelved. Jill Jones never got to release a second album.
‘Parade’ 1986 – 17th April 1985
The second track on ‘Parade’ that segues straight out of the deliriously exciting #10 entry to complete one of the most exhilarating 1-2 punches in the history of popular music albums. Steel drums and a insanely Caribbean flavour underpin what is one of Prince’s most excitedly experimental tracks to date. Considering just how many ideas and inspirations the song feeds and builds upon, it’s crazy to consider how it’s all over in barely two minutes.
17 Strawberry Lover (Mazarati)
‘Mazarati'(1986) – 30th April 1985
Strawberry love is so hard to find
It hides behind a stranger
Who don’t know you’re alive
Controversial acts shared by two in love
In strawberry world, two ain’t enough
Children find it so hard
So hard to lie
But grown-ups always trick you by and by
I could learn to be foolish
And love only one
‘Cause with a strawberry love
I could fun, fun, fun…I need a strawberry lover
‘Cause I’ve got strawberry plans
I need a strawberry lover
Does anybody understand?
“I need a strawberry lover/’Cause I’ve got strawberry plans”?? The fuck does that mean?? “Does anybody understand?”?? Absolutely not, I’m afraid.
And those bizarre lyrics are actually all Prince contributed to this certified banger. Another lost Mazarati classic that Brownmark deserves full credit for. Well, not full credit: those amazing “YOW!” vocal inflections are all vocalist Sir Casey Terry. Yes, ‘Sir’, is there a problem?
Pah, who needs Kiss??
‘Crystal Ball’ (1998) – 14th March 1986
Mix was right
On the one the kick drum hit the triple beat
Baby, I was popping
Did one spin, did a second, did the splits
Came up, looked around, the joint was hopping
Hopping! The joint was hopping!
Somebody say “Movie Star!”So check it out, you wanna dance?
Are you wearing that Paco Rabbit or whatever you call it?
Oh wow, that’s dog
What? Speak up, I can’t hear over that suit
Maybe you can hear this?
Am I supposed to be impressed?
That’s right, Rolls Royce
Check it out, baby
You wanna dance now?
Maybe next song
Yeah right, dance floor is not big enough, fat cow
Fucking bonkers. I love it.
Months before ‘Under the Cherry Moon‘ dropped into theatres like a lead fart and took the decision out of His hands, Prince was already rolling his eyes at the movie star lifestyle and mocking its vacuous narcissism on a track that was considered for the ‘Dream Factory’ album. Over a minimal melody, Prince essentially just talks a story of some wannabe big name slathering himself in body oil and cologne and getting to the club early to catch the girls with minimal competition (“Let’s see, if I tell Gilbert and ‘Rome to meet me eleven then I creep at ten that’ll give me an hour of free reign”). He goes to the dancefloor on the prowl (“Boy or girl, it don’t matter no more, I’m hot!”), takes someone back to his rented apartment, puts on a nature record to get them in the mood (“So, do you like environmental records?/Crickets chirping, water rushing/Supposed to make you horny/It just make me wanna go to the bathroom”) but the other person passes out before they can do anything.
It’s a more nakedly funny and playfully silly track than Prince had recorded by that point, with one of His more extravagant vocal performances (the way he vocalises words like ‘limousine’, ‘hopping’, ‘hot’, ‘bold’, ‘baby’ and more is delicious). It’s an incredibly fun song that demonstrates the same playful sense of humour that Prince was attempting to show in the film.
After plans for ‘Dream Factory’ were shelved, and Prince didn’t feel it fit on either ‘Crystal Ball’ (the unreleased 1986/7 record, not to be confused with the 1998 compilation, which Movie Star was eventually released on! Do keep up) or ‘Sign ‘O’ the Times’, Prince gave the song to Miles Davis, who would perform it live throughout 1987 and 1988. Since live recordings of many of these shows were released, it could be argued that the first release of the song was by Miles Davis.
Until, finally, it was included on that aforementioned 1998 compilation of rarities. According to the liner notes, it was included because it was D’Angelo’s favourite Prince bootleg. RIP, you mad bastard.
‘Sign O’ The Times Super Deluxe Edition’ (2020) – 14th March 1986
Recorded just a couple of weeks before ‘Parade’ was released, it’s insanely clear just how much Prince was already moving ahead from that era. Hard funk, gospel choirs, far darker undertows: Witness 4 the Prosecution points to places Prince would soon take His music, both on the albums he would release and on those he infamously wouldn’t.
Given to Miles Davis at the same time as Movie Star, but that old codger had obviously lost a lot of his cogent thinking skills by that point so he didn’t do anything with it. Also offered to Deborah Allen. Fucking hell, Prince, who the fuck is Deborah Allen?? Stop adding to your lore!!
‘Sign O’ The Times Super Deluxe Edition’ (2020) – 28th April 1985
Africa, Captain Crunch, Norma Jean, sex, and Cheerios
Play my record double speed, feel the climax fit for a king
Just fun, nothing ethereal
Originally recorded a week after ‘Around the World in a Day‘s release – by which point Prince was obviously so over that period – and intended as the final song on ‘Parade’. If the album was still conceived as a movie soundtrack at that point, then it suggests a way happier ending considering what closing song we got instead (#12). A real, end of show freakout that it’s crazy to find out Prince never actually performed live.
unreleased – 8th December 1985
Ermagod this song is so gorgeous…
Listen, sometimes you just have to save songs from Prince like you need to save children from parents addicted to LSD that you just don’t believe are providing a safe home. Yes, we know you created this, but we have to worry about you caring for it properly, so give me your baby right now. It’s why both Sheena Easton needed to wrestle the song away from Prince for her 1987 single, and Chaka Khan took it away for its own safety when she recorded a version for her 1988 album.
Prince’s version? Never released. Lying motionless on the floor of the room it was conceived in while its parent climbs the walls shouting about Paco Rabanne and Captain Cruch and whatever the fuck.
12 Sometimes It Snows in April
‘Parade’ (1986) – 21st April 1985
“Noooooooooooooooo, Alex, nooooooooooooooooooo! This is way too low! I’ve heard this song!”
Maybe I’m being harsh on one of Prince’s most heartbreakingly beautiful songs. Perhaps I just used to play this song so much when I first got my hands on ‘Parade’ as a typically hormonal and emotionally chaotic teenage boy that its true majesty doesn’t quite hit as much anymore. Perhaps, after Prince died in April 2016 and this slice of utter, minimalist beauty was obviously chosen by many as the track to soundtrack the occasion, its impact was dulled even further. D’Angelo (him again) did an incredible version on the Jimmy Fallon show to mourn His death. What’s more, it was first recorded on April 21st (yeah, a little outside the timeline, sue me), the very date that Prince would die 31 years later. Perhaps it’s even triggering to me now??
The phrase ‘sometimes it snows in April’ was first uttered to the public by Prince’s manager Steve Fargnoli on 2nd April 1985. When explaining Prince’s reasoning for retiring from live performances (lol), Fargnoli wrote that Prince had explained himself by saying “Sometimes it snows in April”. Less than a month later, the new album ‘Around the World in Day’ was released. Just before that, Prince had obviously decided He liked the sound of the phrase and sat down at His piano.
A sparse and haunting near seven minute ballad featuring little more than Prince and that same piano, Sometimes It Snows In April still stands up despite all the legend and mythology that’s built up around it. And, if we are to assume it’s intended to be from the perspective of Jerome Benton’s Tricky in ‘Under the Cherry Moon’, it offers further credence to that film being as gay as hell.
unreleased – 20th April 1985
7-month-old baby died in her sleep
The parents went crazy and cried 4 a week
They swore they heard her laugh in the crib by the wall
They’re convinced she’s with us if she’s anything at all
Shit! Also outside the qualifying period! Well, I’m sorry, but it’s going in: I might never again have a chance to bring up one of the most bizarre tracks that Prince ever recorded.
An absolute horrorshow of a song, with sampled screaming women and dischordant sound effects that grow more and more intimidating as they swarm around each other, all underpinned by a tribal drum beat. It’s amongst the most disturbing and lyrically worrying songs that He ever did. The most insane thing about this utterly macabre track is that it was going to be on the ‘Parade’ album.
‘Parade’ (1986) – December 1985
…because this is what ‘Parade’ sounds like!
An absolute unfettered explosion of joy, excitement and creativity, one of the greatest album openers of Prince’s career, and an absolutely pristine introduction to the dayglo and multilayered world of ‘Parade’.
Could arguably be said to have been recorded first on the 17th April 1985, which would make it the third song in a row on this list to be included on the countdown in fraudulent circumstances. But, erm, actually, no: I think you’ll find those mid April 1985 recordings were of Little Girl Wendy’s Parade – totally different song. So I’m actually counting the December 1985 – January 1986 recordings as the first time it was actually recorded it it’s beautiful, finished guide. You will not take this from me!!
unreleased – 3rd August 1985
Empty room, empty room
How am I gonna fill you?
How am I gonna fill this empty room?Love is strong, however long
We should’ve been forever
How am I ever gonna fill this empty room?
DA-DUNGDUNG DA-DA-DUNGDUNG!!!
WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARWAWAWAWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAR…
That quiet piano intro, those whispered vocals, that drum intro, that fucking guitar line: Mate, I am fucking ovulating right now.
At a party to celebrate the wedding of Revolution Drummer Bobby Z in 1985, Prince had an argument with His girlfriend Susannah Melvoin, stormed out, went to the studio, and called in the rest of the Revolution to record a song He’d just written. Including Bobby Z! First of all: leaving your own wedding party to record a song written by a guy who’d just stormed out of that same party is some next level dedication. But have you heard this song?? definitely worth it,no offence Mrs. Z. Secondly, I love the idea of Prince phoning Wendy Melvoin and saying “I’ve just written a song bitching about your sister and you need to come and play guitar on it right away“.
I’m classifying this as ‘unreleased’, as although many different live versions of Empty Room were released in different formats over the next couple of decades, this original 1985 recording never was.
My only issue with this song is that it doesn’t go on long enough. I could have a full 11 minutes of that guitar solo. I guess Bobby Z’s fucking wife was complaining or something.
‘Crystal Ball’ (1998) – 30th November 1985
So I’m quittin’ my friends much to their surprise
I can’t live up to the picture that they paint
Ah somebody help me, I’m losing control (Ow!)
I guess I’m just a sucker in the dream factory, oh!
Look at that album though. None of us were ready for that. Sure, eventually every track was released in some form or another (we’ve seen quite a few on this countdown) – the wonderful job done by the ‘Sign O’ The Times Super Deluxe Edition’ means that only the short segue between Visions and the title track remains technically unreleased – but that had to take more than 30 years to avoid blowing our tiny minds. We couldn’t deal with this in 1986.
The rest of the band obviously agreed. Intended as the fifth album by Prince and the Revolution, it was shelved after Prince’s backing band during His most successful era (commercially and artistically) broke up before the end of the year.
‘Parade’ (1986) – 16th April 1985
You’re so nice!
Enough negativity, let’s light our very souls up!
This. This is what unbridled creativity sounds like. This is the noise inside a musical genius’s head. A thousand different things happening, a thousand different fuses being lit, a thousand things that you’d imagine would interfere with each other but only end of enhancing the beauty of their competing sounds. Christopher Tracy’s Parade and New Position share similar musical DNA on the album, and those two blasts of genius are barely allowed to last two minutes for fear of overstimulating the listener. Life Can Be So Nice shoots off for a whole extra minute, before being cut off almost mid-word, as I imagine the police stormed the studio.
And yes, technically recorded too early, but I said enough with the negativity!!
unreleased – 20th April 1985
The sun set N my heart this afternoon
When 2 friends of mine
Got stuck N the snow
N Uptown when winter’s alarmin’
Oh
Cocaine becomes charmin’
But U talk about things U don’t know
Hey hey hey hey hey hey! Yes it is unreleased! The version that you’re thinking of (released – appropriately enough – on ‘The Vault… Old Friends 4 Sale’ album in 1999) was a rerecorded version from 1991. This version, intended for release on the ‘Parade’ album and recorded in 1985, has never been released. Its tale of betrayal by an dear friend would have obviously fit the Tricky character in the film’s plot, but then Prince kind of ruined by making it waaaaay too personal and relating explicitly to His own experiences rather than some character in a dumb movie.
Jimmy Jam had known Prince since He was around 12 years old (“When we met in junior high, Prince had the biggest afro in the world. I was envious of his hair, ’cause my mom would never let me wear it like that. I was a good keyboard player, but he was on a whole ‘nother level, and we’re talking 12, 13 years old“), and remained close through to the 1980’s when Jimmy joined a local band called Flyte Time, lead by Terry Lewis. Prince has the idea of merging Flyte Time with another local band, the Enterprise Band of Pleasure*, and getting another childhood friend Morris Day to front them. The Time were born, with Jimmy on keyboard and Terry on bass. The Time would be an outlet for Prince’s chronic logorrhea of musical ideas in the early 80s, but though He would write and record most of the songs on the band’s first three albums, but The Time still developed into an absolutely extraordinary live act.
(*sorry, do you have a problem with that name?)
However, Prince’s creation soon threatened to get out of control (brilliantly put by Ultimate Prince as a “Funkenstein-type monster”. Yes, they should have said a “Funkenstein’s-monster-type monster”, but let’s let them off), with The Time often being far too good for His liking. As a support act, it wasn’t uncommon for The Time to blow the Revolution off the stage. The rivalry that was fictionalised in the ‘Purple Rain’ movie was very much inspired by real life. Though, of course, in the movie The Kid doesn’t also write all of the rival band’s songs, because that’s fucking bonkers. Prince would become more and more jealous of the band, even throwing eggs at the from side stage as they did a support slot on the ‘Controversy‘ tour. His jealousy would manifest with Him working and rehearsing the band tirelessly, and also explicitly maintaining full creative control of them. Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis felt suffocated by such restraint, and began producing work for other artists in secret. After a covert recording session with The S.O.S. Band in Atlanta on 24th March 1983, Jimmy and Terry had planned to fly back to do a show with Prince in San Antonio that night, with their ‘boss’ being none the wiser. Unfortunately, heavy snowfall meant their plane was cancelled (that “2 friends of mine/Got stuck N the snow” line isn’t just another cocaine allusion) and they missed the show. The pair were fined for their tardiness (Jimmy: “They fined us $2,000, but we were only making $170 a week, so I don’t know where they thought they were going to get that money from”) and were both fired at the end of the tour on 18th April 1983.
“I’m playing the bad guy, but I didn’t fire Jimmy and Terry. Morris asked me what I would do in his situation. You got to remember, it was his band”
Prince to Rolling Stone 1990
“He absolutely fired them. We were part of his production company. He was calling the shots”
Morris Day quoted in Duane Tudah’s ‘Prince and the Purple Rain Era Studio Sessions 1983 and 1984’
Of course, pesky old ‘reality’ – where Prince is absolutely the bad guy in pretty much every part of the story – gets in the way of loving an amazingly melancholic and soulfully bitter song about a heartbreaking betrayal by a trusted friend, making Prince realise that “Some things R better left unsaid/& some people R better left untrusted”. And there’s a happy ending! Jimmt Jam and Terry Lewis would go onto win five Grammy awards (Prince Himself only had seven) for their production work, and were forgiven enough to appear in the 1990 turkey ‘Graffiti Bridge’ film. Funnily enough, it was around this time that Prince rerecorded Old Friends 4 Sale with new, more vague, less accusatory lyrics.
What? No, these have always been the lyrics. I never mentioned cocaine, what are you talking about?
‘Parade’ (1986) – 8th July 1985
OK, we’re into some next level shit on this list now. To be honest, the top four could be in any order you fancy, it doesn’t really matter, they’re all examples of the art in its purest form. The marvelous Girls & Boys finishes just outside that by virtue of being merely one of the greatest Prince songs ever, rather than one of the greatest things ever
Meet
me
some
where
after
dawn!
Vous etes tres belle.
‘Parade’ (1986) – 14th November 1985
Fuck, mate…
Like I said: put this top four in any order you want. I’ve heard people say that Mountains is their favourite ever Prince song. I’ve heard people say that it’s their favourite ever song period. That’s a very valid opinion. I’m not sure there are many more joyous pieces of art than this.
‘Romance 1600‘ (1985) – 18th January 1985
The moon up above
It shines down upon our skin
Whispering words
That scream of outrageous sin
Scream of sin
We all want the stuff
That’s found N our wildest dream
Wildest dream, yeah
It gets kinda ruff
N the back of our limousine
Sheila, baby, I take back everything I’ve ever said. You are my new God.
Seriously, where the fuck did this come from? I’ve bended my rules massively to include it on this list just because I truly discovered it this year, it may be twelve minutes (and it is the twelve minute version I’m ranking here, as opposed to the three minute single version, which is also great) of the greatest music I’ve ever heard. One of Prince’s greatest ever funk freakouts, it manages to pierce your heart while still sounding like the greatest house party ever that you’re no way near cool enough to be invited to in real life
A strawberry mind
A body that’s built 4 2
A kiss on the spine
We do things we never do
Come swallow the pride
& joy of the ivory tower
We’ll dance on the roof
Make love on a bed of flowers
The song manages to be both as life affirming and as euphorically inspiring as Mountains, but still positioning that positivity towards bonking. Sorry: not ‘bonking‘, making passionate, joyous, rapturous love. “Gets kinds rough in the back of our limousine”?? Damn fucking right it does!
‘Parade’ (1980) – 27th April 1985
Digga-digga-digga-digga-digg…
Ummmmf!!
…
…
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaah, thinkamgonnadance!
Yeah, it’s number two, but what did I tell you about the top four?
Four days after ‘Around the World in a Day’ was released, Prince was back in the studio with an acoustic guitar pissing about with a blues song he had in his head. After Brownmark and Mazarati completely revamped Prince’s barebones version, Prince took it back, essentially used that arrangement of the song, scored one of His biggest hits ever, and never gave Brownmark a co-writing credit or a share of the rotalties.
But, enough about Prince screwing over His bandmates again: Brownmark officially gets a credit here for co-writing one of the strangest, most inventive, and most progressive hit singles since… well, When Doves Cry in 1984, probably.
‘Parade’ (1986) – 16th December 1985
I gave my love, I gave my life
I gave my body and mind
We were inseparable
I guess I gave you all of my timeAnd now you plead insanity
And you don’t even know the score
Why can’t you learn to play the game?
Baby, don’t you know that you need me more?
An absolutely stunning flex of pure songcraft. Lyrically tight, structurally inventive, technically mindblowing, and buttressed by an astonishing discordant string section. Not many people would rate it this high among Prince’s best, and, commercially, fans generally agreed – the song limped to #36 in the UK charts and a dismal #63 in the US. However, like with the rise of fascism and the continued success of Ed Sheeran, the general public is often disastrously wrong.
Anotherloverholenyohead isn’t Prince’s flashiest song, not His most inventive, nor His most mindblowing. Next to the multicoloured insanity of Kiss it could almost seem normal by comparison.
But that’s because it’s a far more subtle and insidious genius, a slice of compositional magic that electrifies the soul, from its incredible synth guitar intro to the overlapping vocals battling with slicing strings. It’s such a perfect, unspoiled piece of pristine song production that you worry about breathing too hard on it, less the slightest change in the surrounding air particles causes it to shatter like a precious crystal statuette. I was shocked when I read the song described as “Breezy funk” until I thought… I guess it is. Only with the funk so artfully concealed beneath mournful strings and lyrics that could be read as both tragic and threatening. Plus there’s innuendo in the lyrics “Face 2 face, baby, I’ll tell U down on my knees” (He is talking about how “there ain’t no other that can do the duty N ur bed” after all).
I’m biased though. As we all our: our so called ‘opinions’ are just an amalgamation of our experiences and our subconscious intents. Only I admit that, so that makes me the least biased, yeah? I remember as a young teen I made a cassette compilation for my Dad as a birthday present. I was a kid! I couldn’t afford to buy him what he would have wanted (12 pack of Boddingtons) or to just get him something from the wrecka stow. The one song on that standard C90 that I made for him that really pricked up his ears enough to even single it out for comment was Anotherloverholenyohead. Wow, I remember thinking, this guy can do it all!
Or, like I said, top 4 in whatever order, I don’t give a shit.
Necessary Evil 