Prince will forever be remembered as a commanding live performer, chart-topping recording artist, and music business revolutionary. Yet for all the time he spent in the spotlight over his four-decade-long career, Prince also worked tirelessly behind the scenes to nurture talent and pen songs for the rising artists he respected.
This June, The Prince Estate will release Originals, a 15-track album featuring 14 previously unreleased recordings that illuminates the vital, behind-the-scenes role Prince played in other artists' careers. The tracks were selected collaboratively by Troy Carter, on behalf of The Prince Estate, and JAY-Z.
On June 21st, Warner Bros. Records will release this extraordinary body of work, sourced directly from Prince's vast archive of Vault recordings, physically on CD, while 180 gram 2LP and limited edition Deluxe CD+2LP formats will follow on July 19th.
Several of the iconic songs found on Originals were considerable hits for the artists who recorded them. Sheila E.‘s “The Glamorous Life” reached #1 on the dance charts in 1984, while the enormous success of “Manic Monday” propelled the single and its accompanying album, The Bangles’ Different Light, to the #2 spot on the pop charts. The Time's Ice Cream Castle, featuring the top 20 “Jungle Love”, spent a whopping 57 weeks on the Billboard 200. And in 1991, Martika enjoyed international success with “Love… Thy Will Be Done”, a top 10 hit in France, Australia, the UK and the USA.
Originals pulls back the curtain to reveal the origins of these familiar songs, in addition to deeper album cuts such as Vanity 6's “Make-Up,” Jill Jones's “Baby, You're a Trip,” and Kenny Rogers' “You're My Love.” The album also features Prince's majestic original 1984 version of “Nothing Compares 2 U,” released in 2018 as a standalone single.