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An Album From Prince's Vault, And His Memoir, Are Coming

The latest release from the Prince Estate is a collection of demos of songs he wrote and recorded for other artists between 1981 and 1991.
Courtesy of the artist
The latest release from the Prince Estate is a collection of demos of songs he wrote and recorded for other artists between 1981 and 1991.

The Prince Estate has announced plans to release another album of previously unreleased tracks recorded between 1981 and 1991. The album, titled Originals, will be available June 7 exclusively on Tidal's Hi-Fi subscription tier, with physical copies, downloads and wider streaming services following on June 21. It features 15 demo versions of songs Prince wrote and recorded for other artists, including Sheila E., The Time and Kenny Rogers. Fourteen of the tracks have never been released before.

Several of the songs were big hits for the bands at the time. "Manic Monday," which Prince originally wrote for his protégé girl group Apollonia 6, ultimately appeared on The Bangles' 1986 album Different Light and spent several weeks near the top of the pop charts. "The Glamorous Life," written for Sheila E., was a number-one hit on the dance charts in 1984, while Sinead O'Connor's version of "Nothing Compares 2 U" spent a month at number one on the Hot 100 in 1990.

Originals follows last year's Piano and a Microphone 1983, a collection of intimate home recordings by Prince.

This fall, the Prince estate and Random House will also release a new memoir by the artist titled The Beautiful Ones. It's due out Oct. 29 and will include snippets of Prince's handwritten lyrics, original scrapbooks and never-before-seen photos.


Originals full track listing:

1. "Sex Shooter"
2. "Jungle Love"
3. "Manic Monday"
4. "Noon Rendezvous"
5. "Make-Up"
6. "100 MPH"
7. "You're My Love"
8. "Holly Rock"
9. "Baby, You're a Trip"
10. "The Glamorous Life"
11. "Gigolos Get Lonely Too"
12. "Love... Thy Will Be Done"
13. "Dear Michaelangelo"
14. "Wouldn't You Love to Love Me?"
15. "Nothing Compares 2 U"

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Robin Hilton is a producer and co-host of the popular NPR Music show All Songs Considered.