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The Family | |
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| Also known as | fDeluxe |
| Origin | Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States |
| Genres | Minneapolis sound |
| Years active |
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| Members |
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| Past members | Prince |
| Website | fdeluxe |
The Family is a band formed by Prince, and one of the first signed to Prince's record label, Paisley Park Records. [1] The band reformed as fDeluxe in 2011. This band should not be confused with a 1970s Minneapolis R&B band of the same name. [2]
The band's origins started with the disintegration of the Time in 1984. [1] Lead singer Morris Day had left the band to pursue a solo career and guitarist Jesse Johnson became the de facto band leader. Prince suggested restructuring the band with new member Paul Peterson to head the group, but Johnson opposed. A few of the Time's newer members followed Johnson to join his backing band (called Jesse Johnson's Revue). [1]
As the Time had served as an outlet for Prince to release more music, he wanted to continue this avenue, inviting the remaining members of the Time, Jellybean Johnson, Jerome Benton, and Paul Peterson, to his home and presented them with his new project. They agreed to become a new band called the Family, with Peterson renamed "St. Paul" as the new frontman and bassist. Johnson and Benton reprised their familiar roles from the Time. To the mix, Prince added Susannah Melvoin, the twin sister of Revolution guitarist Wendy Melvoin, [1] as a backing singer and keyboardist. The fifth member was Eric Leeds, the brother of Prince's tour manager Alan Leeds, who provided saxophone and flute. Also joining was bassist Allen Flowers. Guitarist Miko Weaver, from Sheila E.'s band, is credited in the album credits because he was to be a session and tour player, but was never officially a member of the band.
Much like the Time, the band's material was composed entirely by Prince, with the exception of "River Run Dry", which was written by Revolution drummer Bobby Z. Prince wrote and performed all the other tracks and simply overdubbed Peterson's and Melvoin's vocals and added Leeds' saxophone and flute. On several tracks, Prince's vocals can be clearly heard. Some of the original demos have surfaced as bootlegs and circulate among fans with Prince's original lead vocals, as well as two outtakes: the instrumental "Feline" and the pop "Miss Understood". As on other associates' albums, Prince falsely gave writing credit to the various band members, though he kept his name on "Nothing Compares 2 U". The tracks were all recorded in a span of a few weeks at the end of 1984 after Prince had finished sessions for Around the World in a Day and just before he started recording for Sheila E.'s album Romance 1600 and his own Parade album.
The album itself is a mix of uptempo funk songs ("High Fashion", "Mutiny"), unconventional soul ballads ("Nothing Compares 2 U", "Desire"), jazz-funk instrumental tracks ("Yes", "Susannah's Pajamas") and New Wave songs ("The Screams of Passion", "River Run Dry"). "The Screams of Passion" was released as the first single from the album. [3] MTV placed the video for the song in light rotation. "High Fashion" was the second single, but no video was made.
The album sold poorly upon its release and has been out of print in any form since the late 1980s in the United States. A compact disc version was printed in Germany in the early 1990s following the success of Sinéad O'Connor's cover version of "Nothing Compares 2 U" which was released that same year and is highly valued among Prince fans and collectors.
Prince often incorporated the track "Mutiny" into the setlist of his Parade Tour in 1986, which occasionally was extended to contain the chorus of his song "Dream Factory" and the snarky chant "St. Paul – punk of the month!" as well as on subsequent tours. From 1990 onward, Prince occasionally added "Nothing Compares 2 U" to his tour setlist.
After the band performed a single concert, released their self-titled album and only two singles, Peterson felt constricted by Prince's control and opted to pursue his own career. [4] Without a lead singer, Prince lost interest and absorbed most of the remaining members into the expanded Revolution with the exception of Johnson, who went on to join the Flyte Tyme music production team of Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis.
According to St. Paul's website, [4] he fondly remembers his time with the Family and often plays songs from the album in concert. The Family reunited on December 13, 2003, for a single performance for charity along with other acts formerly associated with Prince. On January 26, 2007, the Family announced that they were returning to the music scene, with a tour and a recording of new music. Now called fDeluxe, they reformed in June 2011 and released a new record called Gaslight with four of the five original members performing. [5]
| Year | Album | Peak chart positions | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US [6] | US R&B [6] | US Gospel [6] | |||
| 1985 | The Family | 62 | 17 | 23 | |
| 2011 | Gaslight(as fDeluxe) | — | — | — | |
| 2014 | AM Static(as fDeluxe) | — | — | — | |
| "—" denotes releases that did not chart. | |||||
| Year | Single | Peak chart positions | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US Pop [7] | US R&B [7] | US Dance [7] | AUS [8] | ||
| 1985 | "The Screams of Passion" | 63 | 9 | 10 | 73 |
| "High Fashion" | — | 34 | — | — | |
| 2011 | "Drummers and Healers" (as fDeluxe) | — | — | — | — |
| "Gaslight" (as fDeluxe) | — | — | — | — | |
| 2012 | "Over the Canyon" (as fDeluxe) | — | — | — | — |
| "You Got What You Wanted" (as fDeluxe) | — | — | — | — | |
| "—" denotes releases that did not chart or were not released in that territory. | |||||
Jonathan David Melvoin was an American musician, active in the 1980s and 1990s.
"The Bird" is a song from The Time's third album, Ice Cream Castle. The song was initially recorded in the studio in 1983 with all instruments by Prince, except guitar, which was performed by Jesse Johnson. This version was replaced by a live recording with the full band at the First Avenue on October 4, 1983. This is the first Time song to be released both live and featuring The Time as a band, rather than primarily Prince with Morris Day on vocals. The song has become a signature number for the band and continues to be played in every Time concert to this day. In addition, two additional live versions have since been released: one on Prince's Rave Un2 the Year 2000 DVD and one recorded at the House of Blues in 1998 for Morris Day's 2004 album It's About Time.
Paul Joseph Peterson, also known as St. Paul Peterson, is a singer and musician best known for his memberships in the bands The Family and The Time.
Madhouse was an American jazz fusion band from Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States, created by Prince. Two Madhouse albums were officially released, both in 1987.
The Time, also known as Morris Day and the Time and The Original 7ven, is an American funk rock band founded in Minneapolis in 1981. They contributed to the development of the Minneapolis sound, an eclectic fusion of funk, R&B, new wave, synth-pop and dance. Led by singer-songwriter Morris Day, the band members are known for having been close associates of musician Prince, and are arguably the most successful artists who have worked with him, achieving success with singles such as "Get It Up", "The Bird", "Cool", "777-9311", "Jungle Love" and "Jerk Out".
The Revolution is an American band formed in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1979 by Prince, serving as his live band and later as his studio band. The band's sound incorporated rock, pop, R&B, funk, new wave and psychedelic elements. Along with Prince's other projects, the Revolution helped create the Minneapolis sound. By the time of their 1986 breakup, the Revolution had backed Prince on two studio albums, two soundtracks and two videos.
Ice Cream Castle is a 1984 album by The Time. Their third album, it consists of six tracks in the funk-pop or ballad genre, and it was produced and arranged by Prince as "The Starr ★ Company".
Pandemonium is the fourth studio album by American band The Time released in 1990. Much like the three previous albums, the album consists of music in the funk rock genre, although this album breaks the Time's six-song album tradition. The album is a tie-in with the film Graffiti Bridge, and several songs from the album appear in the film.
Eric Leeds is an American saxophone player, mostly known for his work with Prince. He has recorded mostly music in the pop and funk genres, but is a studied jazz musician.
Susannah Melvoin is an American vocalist and songwriter. Melvoin is best known for her association with Prince in the mid-1980s. Melvoin comes from a musical family and is the twin sister of musician Wendy Melvoin, sister of Jonathan Melvoin, and daughter of jazz pianist Michael Melvoin.
"Girls & Boys" is a 1986 song by American musician Prince and the Revolution, from his eighth studio album, Parade (1986), the soundtrack to the film Under the Cherry Moon. The song was released as a single in the UK, and as the B-side to "Anotherloverholenyohead" in the US.
Garry George "Jellybean" Johnson is an American drummer, guitarist, songwriter, record producer and musician based out of Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Jerome Benton is an American musical performer, backup dancer and comedic actor. He can be seen in music videos by Janet Jackson and Prince, but he is known for his association with Morris Day and The Time.
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.
Sign o' the Times is the ninth studio album by the American singer, songwriter, producer, and multi-instrumentalist Prince. It was first released on March 30, 1987, as a double album by Paisley Park Records and Warner Bros. Records. The album is the follow-up to Parade and is Prince's first solo album following his disbanding of the Revolution. The album's songs were largely recorded during 1986 to 1987 in sessions for releases Prince ultimately aborted: Dream Factory, the pseudonymous Camille, and finally the triple album Crystal Ball. Prince eventually compromised with label executives and shortened the length of the release to a double album.
The Family is the sole studio album by the band of the same name, released on August 19, 1985 by Prince's Paisley Park Records.
C-Note is a live album by Prince and The New Power Generation released in 2004. Its genre is jazz, with five tracks taken from soundchecks during the One Nite Alone... Tour.
The Parade Tour was a concert tour by American recording artist Prince in support of Prince and The Revolution's eighth studio album Parade and his 1986 film Under the Cherry Moon. The Hit n Run Tour was not a full scale American tour, but a string of concerts that was dubbed "Hit n Run" by Prince's manager. Most of those shows were announced days or hours before the actual concert took place. The Parade Tour marked the first full tour of Europe by Prince. It also saw the expanded Revolution line-up and featured Sheila E. and her band as an opening act for most shows.
Jill Jones is the self-titled debut solo album from the artist of the same name; Jill Jones. The album was released in 1987 on Paisley Park / Warner Bros. Records. It was produced by Jones and Prince.
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.
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