Although Prince might disagree, Warner Bros. actually did him a big favour by refusing to release his proposed three record set, Crystal Ball, as the follow-up to 1986’s Parade, and requesting that he limit himself to the double album format that would result in Sign O’ The Times.
Once free from his association with the label in the nineties, one of the first things Prince did (or ‘artist formerly know as’ at that point) was to release a 3CD set called Emancipation. Although this was ten years down the line, and the diminutive pop star’s commercial appeal had waned significantly, the album still only sold very moderately, compared to his past successes.

• Sign O The Times Album
• Prince Sign O The Times Remastered Rarest

The truth is that not many people want a 3-disc Prince record (unless it’s a compilation of hits). In the case of Emancipation this felt more like Prince making a point to his former employers than anything else.

If it is an almost-truth that most good double albums could make a great single, then what to say about a sprawling triple like Emancipation? It had some great songs (Somebody’s Somebody, Right Back Here In My Arms, Joint 2 Joint) hidden amongst plenty of covers and lots of dross (Courtin’ Time, We Gets Up).

Sign O' The Times on Rotten Tomatoes scores 86% (experts) and 92% (audience). Whether or not it's 'the greatest concert movie ever made' (SKY Magazine), it is the definitive demonstration of Prince's awesome talent and is his commercial and critical peak.

Anyway, back to 1986/7, and the 22-track Crystal Ball was edited and trimmed down to the double album we know as Sign O’ The Times. Seven tracks got the chop, but all would end up seeing the light of day in the years to come in some form or another, either as b-sides or reworked album tracks (on the Black Album and Graffiti Bridge to name two).

1. Prince‘s 1987 album Sign O’ The Times will be reissued by Warner Records in September and amongst the formats are two enormous CD and vinyl super deluxe editions that offer a massive 63 previously unreleased tracks, including 45 studio ‘vault’ tracks. Read on for all the details.
2. Sep 11, 2019  2) Sign O the times (might get PEACH coloured discs here instead of purple ones) 3 Lovesexy 4) The rainbow children. More unreleased tunes please! I have loved Prince (metaphorically) for 30+ years.long may it continue. Long may he reign.
3. The Super Deluxe Edition opens with Prince’s iconic album, Sign O’ The Times, dazzlingly remastered for the very first time by Prince’s original mastering engineer Bernie Grundman. The set also includes an entire previously unreleased audio recording of Prince’s Sign O’ The Times tour performance in Utrecht, Netherlands, on June 20, 1987.

Even with Warner Bros. putting their foot down over Crystal Ball, a double album would still have been viewed as a risky venture. Parade had not sold particularly well in the US, despite Kiss reaching the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100.

The running order of the new double album was improved, and Sign O’ The Times (the song) became track one and the title track (having been hidden away halfway through disc three of Crystal Ball).

The rest, as they say, is history.

The Sign O’ The Times album went on to become both a big commercial success, and an almost universally critically acclaimed record. Most rank it as his best.

The minimalist social commentary of the Sign O’ The Times single struck a chord with the public, and became a massive transatlantic hit. The rest of the album was mostly performed and produced by Prince alone (The Revolution having been disbanded after the abortive Dream Factory project) and was a scintillating mix of rock, pop, funk and soul with a distinctive edge thanks to Prince at his creative best, in terms of arrangements. A few tracks would include vocals by Prince’s alter ego Camille, such as the single If I Was Your Girlfriend.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtveZ0t48p4

The now peach and black-attired star went on to tour the record across Europe, where he felt most appreciated at that time. To make up for not touring the US, Prince agreed to film some shows for the concert film Sign O’ The Times. This got a limited cinematic release at the time.

Sign O’ The Times is 25 years old this year and a deluxe edition would be a most welcome celebration of this fine record. There is plenty of bonus material available for an expanded set, and what follows is a suggestion as to how a deluxe expanded set might look

CD1 – Original album, remastered.

CD2 – Original album, remastered.

CD 3 – B-sides and Remixes

B-sides

• La La La, He He Hee (10:32)
• Shockadelica (6:12)

Remixes/Edits

• Sign O’ The Times 7″ Edit 3:42
• Housequake Edit 3:24
• Housequake (7 minute MoQuake) 7:15
• You Got The Look (Long Look) 6:45
• If I Was Your Girlfriend 7” Edit 3:46
• Shockadelica Edit 3:30
• La La La, He He Hee Edit 3:21
• I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man (Fade) 3:39
• Hot Thing (Edit) 3:40
• Hot Thing (Extended Remix) 8:32
• Hot Thing (Dub Version) 6:53

DVD – Sign O’ The Times concert film, promo videos

I see a four-disc edition as above been the most likely and commercial prospect. However at the same time a 5 or 6 disc Super Deluxe Edition could include the tracks removed from the original Crystal Ball 3 LP set, plus related works including the early versions of Strange Relationship and I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man (from 1982) and other tracks from the Camille/Dream Factory projects.

Any of these proposed expanded editions are likely to need some degree of cooperation from Prince himself, and there is currently no any sign of this happening.

ALBUM: Sign O’ The Times by Prince
ANNIVERSARY: 25th
WHY REISSUE?: B-sides (unedited) and remixes largely unreleased in CD, early versions of album offer many interesting bonus tracks.

Tomorrow> Day 8> Bruce Springsteen: Tunnel Of Love

Prince – Classic Albums Collection 1978-1986 (2013)
8 Albums | FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 339:01 minutes | 11.4 GB | Genre: R&B, Pop, Rock
Studio Master, Official Digital Download | Artwork: Front cover(s) | @ Warner Bros.

Few artists have created a body of work as rich and varied as Prince. During the ’80s, he emerged as one of the most singular talents of the rock & roll era, capable of seamlessly tying together pop, funk, folk, and rock. Not only did he release a series of groundbreaking albums; he toured frequently, produced albums and wrote songs for many other artists, and recorded hundreds of songs that still lie unreleased in his vaults. With each album he released, Prince has shown remarkable stylistic growth and musical diversity, constantly experimenting with different sounds, textures, and genres. Occasionally, his music can be maddeningly inconsistent because of this eclecticism, but his experiments frequently succeed; no other contemporary artist can blend so many diverse styles into a cohesive whole. Prince is a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee who has sold over eighty million copies worldwide. He has won seven GRAMMY Awards, a Golden Globe and an Academy Award. He is also one of Rolling Stone’s “100 Greatest Artists of All Time”.

Prince – For You (1978/2013)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 33:21 minutes | 1,19 GB
Studio Master, Official Digital Download | Front cover

For You is Prince’s highly regarded debut album. He showcases his unworldly arrangements and performance skills, blending R&B with funk. Reaching the top twenty five on Billboard’s Top R&B albums, For You includes the standouts, “Just As Long As We’re Together” and “Soft And Wet.” This iconic debut is an essential addition to your music collection.

On his debut album, For You, Prince shows exceptional skill for arranging and performing mainstream urban R&B and funk, but his songwriting remains conventional. Only on the mildly racy “Soft and Wet” does he demonstrate a personal touch, but the song is still more of a promise than a fulfillment. While For You isn’t a bad record, it is merely a pleasant one, and it offers very little indication of his staggering talents.

Tracklist:
01 – For You
02 – In Love
03 – Soft And Wet
04 – Crazy You
05 – Just As Long As We’re Together
06 – Baby
07 – My Love Is Forever
08 – So Blue
09 – I’m Yours

Prince – Prince (1979/2013)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 41:05 minutes | 1,44 GB
Studio Master, Official Digital Download | Front cover

Prince is the second studio album by Prince, originally released in October 1979. It was written, produced, and performed entirely by Prince himself, and is a harbinger of what Prince would be capable of in his future albums. The song “I Feel for You” is a true masterpiece, all the more incredible given the fact Prince was only 20 years old when he recorded the album. Other great singles from this album include “I Wanna Be Your Lover” and “Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad?”

Sony LBT-D905CD, TC-D905 Service Manual - FREE DOWNLOAD. Expanding the urban R&B and funk approach of his debut, Prince is a considerably more accomplished record than his first effort, featuring the first signs of his adventurous, sexy signature sound. Although the album is still rather uneven, a handful of songs rank as classics. “I Wanna Be Your Lover” is excellent lite funk and “Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad?” is a wonderful soulful plea, but “I Feel for You,” a sexy slice of urban R&B with a strong pop melody, is the true masterpiece of Prince, indicating the major breakthroughs of his next album, Dirty Mind.

Tracklist:
01 – I Wanna Be Your Lover
02 – Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad?
03 – Sexy Dancer
04 – When We’re Dancing Close and Slow
05 – With You
06 – Bambi
07 – Still Waiting
08 – I Feel for You
09 – It’s Gonna Be Lonely

Prince – Dirty Mind (1979/2013)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 30:03 minutes | 1,03 GB
Studio Master, Official Digital Download | Front cover

Neither For You nor Prince was adequate preparation for the full-blown masterpiece of Prince’s third album, Dirty Mind. Recorded in his home studio, with Prince playing nearly every instrument, Dirty Mind is a stunning, audacious amalgam of funk, new wave, R&B, and pop, fueled by grinningly salacious sex and the desire to shock. Where other pop musicians suggested sex in lewd double-entendres, Prince left nothing to hide – before its release, no other rock or funk record was ever quite as explicit as Dirty Mind, with its gleeful tales of oral sex, threesomes, and even incest. Certainly, it opened the doors for countless sexually explicit albums, but to reduce its impact to mere profanity is too reductive – the music of Dirty Mind is as shocking as its graphic language, bending styles and breaking rules with little regard for fixed genres. Basing the album on a harder, rock-oriented beat more than before, Prince tries everything – there’s pure new wave pop (“When You Were Mine”), soulful crooning (“Gotta Broken Heart Again”), robotic funk (“Dirty Mind”), rock & roll (“Sister”), sultry funk (“Head,” “Do It All Night”), and relentless dance jams (“Uptown,” “Partyup”), all in the space of half an hour. It’s a breathtaking, visionary album, and its fusion of synthesizers, rock rhythms, and funk set the style for much of the urban soul and funk of the early ’80s.

Tracklist:
01 – Dirty Mind
02 – When You Were Mine
03 – Do It All Night
04 – Gotta Broken Heart Again
05 – Uptown
06 – Head
07 – Sister
08 – Partyup

Prince – Controversy (1981/2013)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 37:08 minutes | 1,26 GB
Studio Master, Official Digital Download | Front cover

Composed, produced, arranged and performed by Prince, Controversy is the music icon’s 1981 classic. Reaching #3 on Billboard’s Top R&B Albums, the work features the hit R&B singles “Controversy” and “Let’s Work.” This undeniable masterpiece highlights Prince’s remarkable musicianship. The outing received four stars from Blender and Rolling Stone.

Controversy continues in the same vein of new wave-tinged funk on Dirty Mind, emphasizing Prince’s fascination with synthesizers and synthesizing disparate pop music genres. It is also more ambitious than its predecessor, attempting to tackle social protest (“Controversy,” “Ronnie, Talk to Russia,” “Annie Christian”) along with sex songs (“Jack U Off,” “Sexuality”), and it tries hard to bring funk to a rock audience and vice versa. Even with all of Prince’s ambitions, the music on Controversy doesn’t represent a significant breakthrough from Dirty Mind, and it is often considerably less catchy and memorable. Nevertheless, Prince’s talents as musician make the record enjoyable, even if it isn’t as compelling as most of his catalog.

Tracklist:
01 – Controversy
02 – Sexuality
03 – Do Me, Baby
04 – Private Joy
05 – Ronnie, Talk to Russia
06 – Let’s Work
07 – Annie Christian
08 – Jack U Off

Prince – 1999 (1982/2013)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 70:12 minutes | 2,52 GB
Studio Master, Official Digital Download | Front cover

Sign O The Times Album

1999 is the seminal masterpiece by Prince. It is his first to reach the Billboard Top Ten and was one of the bestselling albums of 1983. The outing features the breakthrough hits “1999,” “Delirious” and “Little Red Corvette.” The multi-instrumentalist incorporates thrilling synthesizers to produce one of his most innovative works to date. VH1, Slant Magazine, and Rolling Stone named 1999 one of the greatest albums of all time. In 2008, the album was inducted into the GRAMMY Hall of Fame.

Chart History/Awards:
– Reached #4 on Billboard’s Top R&B Albums.
– Reached #9 on the Billboard 200.
– “1999” reached #4 on Billboard’s Top R&B Singles.
– “Delirious” reached #8 on the Billboard Hot 100.
– Included on VH1, Slant Magazine and Rolling Stone’s “Greatest Albums of All Time.”
– Inducted into the GRAMMY® Hall of Fame.
– Allmusic.com – 5/5 stars.

With Dirty Mind, Prince had established a wild fusion of funk, rock, new wave, and soul that signaled he was an original, maverick talent, but it failed to win him a large audience. After delivering the sound-alike album, Controversy, Prince revamped his sound and delivered the double album 1999. Where his earlier albums had been a fusion of organic and electronic sounds, 1999 was constructed almost entirely on synthesizers by Prince himself. Naturally, the effect was slightly more mechanical and robotic than his previous work and strongly recalled the electro-funk experiments of several underground funk and hip-hop artists at the time. Prince had also constructed an album dominated by computer funk, but he didn’t simply rely on the extended instrumental grooves to carry the album – he didn’t have to when his songwriting was improving by leaps and bounds. The first side of the record contained all of the hit singles, and, unsurprisingly, they were the ones that contained the least amount of electronics. “1999” parties to the apocalypse with a P-Funk groove much tighter than anything George Clinton ever did, “Little Red Corvette” is pure pop, and “Delirious” takes rockabilly riffs into the computer age. After that opening salvo, all the rules go out the window – “Let’s Pretend We’re Married” is a salacious extended lust letter, “Free” is an elegiac anthem, “All the Critics Love U in New York” is a vicious attack at hipsters, and “Lady Cab Driver,” with its notorious bridge, is the culmination of all of his sexual fantasies. Sure, Prince stretches out a bit too much over the course of 1999, but the result is a stunning display of raw talent, not wallowing indulgence.

Tracklist:
01 – 1999
02 – Little Red Corvette
03 – Delirious
04 – Let’s Pretend We’re Married
05 – D.M.S.R.
06 – Automatic
07 – Something In The Water (Does Not Compute)
08 – Free
09 – Lady Cab Driver
10 – All The Critics Love U In New York
11 – International Lover

Prince – Purple Rain (1984/2013)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 43:46 minutes | 1,58 GB
Studio Master, Official Digital Download | Front cover

Purple Rain is Prince’s 1984 masterpiece and one of the best albums in music history. This multi-Platinum classic has sold over twenty million copies worldwide, becoming one of the bestselling albums of all time. This chart-topping hit features the Top Ten singles “Purple Rain,” “Let’s Go Crazy” and “When Doves Cry.” It earned Prince two GRAMMY Awards and is featured on countless “Best of” lists including Time, Rolling Stone, VH1, Vanity Fair, Slant Magazine, Entertainment Weekly and many others. In 2012, the album was inducted into the Library of Congress’ National Recording Registry. This brilliant masterpiece is an essential addition to any collection.

Chart History/Awards:
– On Rolling Stone’s “500 Greatest Albums of All Time.”
– On Tempo’s “Greatest Albums of the 1980s.”
– #2 on Slant Magazine’s “Best Albums of the 1980s.”
– Inducted into the Library of Congress’ National Recording Registry.
– One of Entertainment Weekly’s “100 Best Movie Soundtracks.”
– One of Vibe’s “100 Essential Albums of the 20th Century.”
– Reached #1 on the Billboard 200.
– “Let’s Go Crazy” and “When Doves Cry” reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100.
– Won two GRAMMY Awards.
– Allmusic.com – 5/5 stars, album pick.

Prince designed Purple Rain as the project that would make him a superstar, and, surprisingly, that is exactly what happened. Simultaneously more focused and ambitious than any of his previous records, Purple Rain finds Prince consolidating his funk and R&B roots while moving boldly into pop, rock, and heavy metal with nine superbly crafted songs. Even its best-known songs don’t tread conventional territory: the bass-less “When Doves Cry” is an eerie, spare neo-psychedelic masterpiece; “Let’s Go Crazy” is a furious blend of metallic guitars, Stonesy riffs, and a hard funk backbeat; the anthemic title track is a majestic ballad filled with brilliant guitar flourishes. Although Prince’s songwriting is at a peak, the presence of the Revolution pulls the music into sharper focus, giving it a tougher, more aggressive edge. And, with the guidance of Wendy and Lisa, Prince pushed heavily into psychedelia, adding swirling strings to the dreamy “Take Me With U” and the hard rock of “Baby I’m a Star.” Even with all of his new, but uncompromising, forays into pop, Prince hasn’t abandoned funk, and the robotic jam of “Computer Blue” and the menacing grind of “Darling Nikki” are among his finest songs. Taken together, all of the stylistic experiments add up to a stunning statement of purpose that remains one of the most exciting rock & roll albums ever recorded.

Prince Sign O The Times Remastered Rarest

Tracklist:
01 – Let’s Go Crazy
02 – Take Me With U
03 – The Beautiful Ones
04 – Computer Blue
05 – Darling Nikki
06 – When Doves Cry
07 – I Would Die 4 U
08 – Baby I’m A Star
09 – Purple Rain

Prince – Around The World In A Day (1985/2013)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 42:33 minutes | 1,54 GB
Studio Master, Official Digital Download | Front cover