Prince Rogers Nelson was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and record producer. The recipient of numerous awards and nominations, he is widely regarded as one of the greatest musicians of his generation. He was known for his flamboyant, androgynous persona; his wide vocal range, which included a far-reaching falsetto and high-pitched screams; and his skill as a multi-instrumentalist, often preferring to play all or most of the instruments on his recordings. His music incorporated a wide variety of styles, including funk, R&B, rock, new wave, soul, synth-pop, pop, jazz, blues and hip hop. Prince produced his albums himself, pioneering the Minneapolis sound.
Paisley Park Records was an American record label founded by musician Prince in 1985, which was distributed by and funded in part by Warner Bros. Records. It was started in 1985, following the success of the film and album Purple Rain. The label shares its name with Prince's recording complex Paisley Park Studios and the song "Paisley Park" on his 1985 Around the World in a Day album. Paisley Park was opened to the public as a museum and memorial to Prince following his death. October 28, 2016, is officially known as Paisley Park Day in the city of Chanhassen to recognize the opening of the museum.
1999 is the fifth studio album by American recording artist Prince, released on October 27, 1982, by Warner Bros. Records. It became his first album to be recorded with his band the Revolution. 1999's critical and commercial success propelled Prince to a place in the public psyche and marked the beginning of two years of heightened fame via his following releases.
"Man on the Moon" is a song by American alternative rock band R.E.M., released in November 1992 as the second single from their eighth album, Automatic for the People (1992). The lyrics were written by lead singer Michael Stipe, and the music by drummer Bill Berry and guitarist Peter Buck. The song was well received by critics and reached number 30 on the US Billboard Hot 100, number 17 on the US Cash Box Top 100, number 18 on the UK Singles Chart, and number one in Iceland. It remains one of R.E.M.'s most popular songs and was included on the compilations In Time: The Best of R.E.M. 1988–2003 and Part Lies, Part Heart, Part Truth, Part Garbage 1982–2011.
Madhouse was an American jazz fusion band from Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States, created by Prince. Two Madhouse albums were officially released, both in 1987.
Love Symbol is the fourteenth studio album by American recording artist Prince, and the second of two that featured his backing band the New Power Generation. It was released on October 13, 1992, by Paisley Park Records and Warner Bros. Records. It was originally conceived as a "fantasy rock soap opera" with various spoken segues throughout, and contains elements of R&B, funk, pop, rock, and soul.
Come is the fifteenth studio album by American recording artist Prince. It was released on August 16, 1994, by Warner Bros. Records. At the time of its release, Prince was in a public dispute with Warner Bros. A lack of promotion from the label and Prince himself resulted in Come under-performing on American record charts, stalling at No. 15, and becoming his first album since Controversy (1981) to not yield any top 10 singles in the US. However, it was more successful overseas, reaching the top 10 across Europe and topping the UK Albums Chart.
Graffiti Bridge is the twelfth studio album by American recording artist Prince and is the soundtrack album to the 1990 film of the same name. It was released on August 20, 1990, by Paisley Park Records and Warner Bros. Records.
Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic is the twenty-third studio album by American recording artist Prince, who was at the time going by the unpronounceable "Love Symbol". Released on November 9, 1999, by NPG Records and Arista Records, the album was issued shortly after the release of The Vault: Old Friends 4 Sale (1999). It includes several guest appearances, including by Gwen Stefani, Eve, and Sheryl Crow; Prince also completed a cover of Crow's 1996 single "Everyday Is a Winding Road". A pop and R&B album, it departs from the soul genre found on Prince's previous efforts.
Girl 6 is the soundtrack album to the Spike Lee film of the same name. All songs were written by Prince. It was released on March 19, 1996, by Warner Bros. Records. The album consists of mostly previously released songs from Prince and related artists such as the Family, Vanity 6, and the New Power Generation. The three previously unreleased tracks are "She Spoke 2 Me", "Don't Talk 2 Strangers" and "Girl 6", which was newly recorded for the soundtrack.
The Vault: Old Friends 4 Sale is the twenty-second studio album by American recording artist Prince. It was released on August 24, 1999, by Warner Bros. Records. The album was submitted to Warner Bros. Records in 1996, complete with artwork at the same time as Chaos and Disorder, but released three years later, shortly before Prince's Arista album release Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic. The album was recorded from 1985 through 1996. It was the last album to be released by Warner Bros. to fulfill his 1992 contract obligations.
Crystal Ball is an unreleased studio album by Prince recorded throughout 1986. The album was planned to consist of 3 LPs and cover a broad range of musical styles. Many of its tracks were repurposed for the 1987 album Sign o' the Times, while others remained officially unreleased for years.
"Batdance" is a song by American musician Prince, from the 1989 Batman soundtrack. Helped by the film's popularity, the song reached number one in the US, becoming Prince's fourth American number-one single and his first number-one hit since "Kiss" in 1986.
"The Truth" is a song recorded by American recording artist Prince for his twenty-first and eponymous studio album, The Truth (1998). The track was released as the record's lead single by NPG Records on February 14, 1997. Being issued as a CD single, the recording was paired with previously unreleased track "Don't Play Me". "The Truth" was solely written and produced by Prince, who also provided the track's entire instrumentation. Musically, the recording is an acoustic rock and folk song that lyrically has Prince claiming that there is "no more truth" left in the world.
Two from the Vault is a three-CD live album by the rock band the Grateful Dead. It was recorded at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, California on August 24, 1968. The event was left unreleased for nearly 25 years, before being mixed down from the original multi-track reels and released on Grateful Dead Records in 1992.
Prince was well known in the entertainment industry for having a vast body of work that remains unreleased. It has been said that his vault contains multiple unreleased albums and over 50 fully produced music videos that have never been released, along with albums and other media. The following is a list, in rough chronological order, of the most prominent of these unreleased works. Many were later released and circulated among collectors as bootlegs.
"Rockin' Back Inside My Heart" is a song by American singer, songwriter and actress Julee Cruise, released in 1990 as the second single from her debut album, Floating into the Night (1989). It was released on Warner Bros. Records. Cruise performs the song in "Episode 14" of American mystery serial drama television series Twin Peaks, the long-anticipated episode of the show in which the killer of Laura Palmer was finally revealed after a year of anxious, media-driven anticipation. Cruise also sings "Rockin' Back Inside My Heart" in Industrial Symphony No. 1, another David Lynch project.
"Georgy Porgy" is a song written by David Paich, included on American rock band Toto's self-titled debut album in 1978. It was released as a single in 1979 and charted on the Billboard Hot 100 as well as on both the R&B and Dance charts.
Lotusflow3r is a triple album set by American recording artist Prince and protégée Bria Valente. It contains the thirty-third and thirty-fourth studio albums by Prince, Lotusflow3r and MPLSound, as well as Elixer, the debut studio album by Bria Valente. It was released on March 24, 2009, by NPG Records. The three albums were sold exclusively in the United States at Target as a 3-disc set, and in Europe from more online music stores.
Camille is the upcoming second posthumous studio album by American musician Prince. The album was originally recorded in 1986 under the pseudonym Camille, a feminine alter ego portrayed by Prince via pitch-shifting his vocals up to an androgynous register. Prince planned to release the album without any acknowledgement of his identity. The project was initially scrapped several weeks before its planned release, with rare early LP pressings eventually surfacing for auction in 2016; several tracks recorded for Camille were instead included on various other projects, most prominently Prince's 1987 double LP Sign o' the Times.
