Usually, though not always, the first album of an artist is eponymous.

Here it was the second one.

Has it ever been explained why P chose not to give it a title?

Thx.

Isn't Prince the title of the album?

databank said:

Usually, though not always, the first album of an artist is eponymous.

Here it was the second one.

Has it ever been explained why P chose not to give it a title?

Thx.

It's title was 'Prince.' Kid Rock waited until he was four albums in before he went eponymous. The Beatles left it until their ninth U.k studio album; Metallica their fifth... The Beach Boys left it until their 22nd. Prince's very own Sheila E. waited until her third album to go eponymous.

How about Santana, who named both their first and third albums 'Santana' (former Eagle Randy Meisner did the exact same thing with his first and third albums), or Peter Gabriel, who didn't give official titles to any of his first four albums? Seal failed to title three of his first four albums, leaving promoters and fans to nick-name them Seal, Seal 2 and Seal 4. There are no hard and fast rules when it comes to giving an album its title, and though you could quite easily give me a hundred examples of eponymous debut albums, there are countless examples of artists and groups self-titling albums well in to their careers.... and since when did Prince ever follow the usual path anyway, lol?

Long story short, Prince did choose to give his second album a title... Prince . I like it, it's kinda catchy.

TheEnglishGent said:

Isn't Prince the title of the album?

Yewdale said:

databank said:

Usually, though not always, the first album of an artist is eponymous.

Here it was the second one.

Has it ever been explained why P chose not to give it a title?

Thx.

How about Santana, who named both their first and third albums 'Santana' (former Eagle Randy Meisner did the exact same thing with his first and third albums),

He called his albums Santana?

TheEnglishGent said:

Yewdale said:

How about Santana, who named both their first and third albums 'Santana' (former Eagle Randy Meisner did the exact same thing with his first and third albums),

He called his albums Santana?

I hear Don and Glenn had some injunction on him using his own name, claiming ownership of his mortal soul.... so yeah. What's a man to do? Randy needed to get those tunes out there somehow.

Yewdale said:

TheEnglishGent said:

He called his albums Santana?

I hear Don and Glenn had some injunction on him using his own name, claiming ownership of his mortal soul.... so yeah. What's a man to do? Randy needed to get those tunes out there somehow.

PRINCE is the title of the album (hmmm is there a song in the vault title PRINCE)

But Janet Jacksons 3rd album was title Janet

TheEnglishGent said:

Yewdale said:

How about Santana, who named both their first and third albums 'Santana' (former Eagle Randy Meisner did the exact same thing with his first and third albums),

He called his albums Santana?

With For You, it was "this is what I can do".

With Prince, it was "this is who I am, and what i'm about".

Yewdale u r right there r many other examples.

And yeah, guys, I know an eponymous title is a title.

To be honest except in the case of Seal or Gabriel who had a real stand against titling albums at all, I've never really gotten the whole eponymous concept: you don't have movies titled "Woody Allen" or books titled "Milan Kundera".

But that's a bit out of topic. P's second album could have been titled after a song, it wasn't. I wanna know why.

databank said:

databank said:

Yewdale u r right there r many other examples.

And yeah, guys, I know an eponymous title is a title.

To be honest except in the case of Seal or Gabriel who had a real stand against titling albums at all, I've never really gotten the whole eponymous concept: you don't have movies titled "Woody Allen" or books titled "Milan Kundera".

But that's a bit out of topic. P's second album could have been titled after a song, it wasn't. I wanna know why.

I'll C if I can find further info
I don't think I ever read anything explaining the use of his name for the title though

Let's talk about Peter Gabriel's album titles...

databank said:

Yewdale u r right there r many other examples.

And yeah, guys, I know an eponymous title is a title.

To be honest except in the case of Seal or Gabriel who had a real stand against titling albums at all, I've never really gotten the whole eponymous concept: you don't have movies titled "Woody Allen" or books titled "Milan Kundera".

But that's a bit out of topic. P's second album could have been titled after a song, it wasn't. I wanna know why.

Self-titled albums were much more common in the 70s, and they weren't always used just for the debut. I can think of several artists (Diana Ross, Fleetwood Mac, The Hollies) that released 2 self-titled albums just a few years apart. I think the thought at the time was that it was meant to draw a line in the sand, to be a marker of a new beginning of sorts.

OldFriends4Sale said:

PRINCE is the title of the album (hmmm is there a song in the vault title PRINCE)

But Janet Jacksons 3rd album was title Janet

'janet.' was Janet's 5th album wasn't it? She had 2 (at least) before 'Control'.

.

And I've often wondered, if the 'Prince' album had been titled something else what would he have picked? He usually had a title track, and for every album through SOTT (except PR) it was the first track. Would the album have been called "I Wanna Be Your Lover"? Terrible album title, maybe that's why he went the self-titled route.

[Edited 2/1/17 16:01pm]

Acts from Aerosmith to Christopher Cross to Janet Jackson have had their first album self-titled, whereas a long established band like Def Leppard only recently used the self-title. Others like Janet Jackson use parts of their name over and over. janet. and Damiita Jo to name a couple. (I'm sort of surprised she never had one called Ms. Jackson.)

It's really just a record company thing. Sometimes you just put out a bunch of songs, that meld well together, you just put your name on it and say "this is me". And leave it at that. It's a non-statement, no centerpiece, the album just stands on its own.

Just to be technical - I suppose Prince has actually had two self-titled albums, the other being the album; that which ended up being more prophetic of things to come for a while. The irony in that is the opening track was "My Name is Prince", then he promptly was like "PSYCHE!", and changed it. I always thought that was such a bitch move, in a "gotcha" sorta way.

I don't claim to know why exactly, but my guess is that it had to do with him and / or WB considering the record his "commercial debut". Much more effort seemed to go into the promotion and getting his name out there. It's his "teen pop" record to me.

renfield said:

OldFriends4Sale said:

PRINCE is the title of the album (hmmm is there a song in the vault title PRINCE)

But Janet Jacksons 3rd album was title Janet

'janet.' was Janet's 5th album wasn't it? She had 2 (at least) before 'Control'.

.

And I've often wondered if the 'Prince' album had been titled something else what would he have picked? He usually had a title track, and for every album through SOTT (except PR) it was the first track. Would the album have been called "I Wanna Be Your Lover"? Terrible album title, mayebe that's why he went the self-titled route.

Correct.

Janet

Dream Street

Control

Rhythm Nation 1814

janet.

The Velvet Rope

All For You

Damita Jo

20 Y.O.

Discipline

Unbreakable

I always considered "I Wanna Be Your Lover" the real title track of that album. It spoke to him being more radio-friendly, more focused on a sound (because it sounds quite less-Yacht-rock like For You), and he wanted people to love and pay attention to it. It's also full of love songs, so "With You" or "I Feel For You" could have been contenders. Imagine saying "Prince with you" as the title. It makes a great statement hidden in an artist & title.

didn't technically have a title track either, neither did Parade. Of course, that could have had two title tracks, in essence. Batman didn't have a title track. If one was splitting hairs, neither did Exodus or Gold, in effect; although tracks contained those words (the argument also being made for Parade, Batman/Batdance etc). Hell, neither HNR1 or 2 had title tracks.

Yewdale said:

databank said:

Usually, though not always, the first album of an artist is eponymous.

Here it was the second one.

Has it ever been explained why P chose not to give it a title?

Thx.

How about Santana, who named both their first and third albums 'Santana' (former Eagle Randy Meisner did the exact same thing with his first and third albums), or Peter Gabriel, who didn't give official titles to any of his first four albums? Seal failed to title three of his first four albums, leaving promoters and fans to nick-name them Seal, Seal 2 and Seal 4. There are no hard and fast rules when it comes to giving an album its title, and though you could quite easily give me a hundred examples of eponymous debut albums, there are countless examples of artists and groups self-titling albums well in to their careers.... and since when did Prince ever follow the usual path anyway, lol?

Long story short, Prince did choose to give his second album a title... Prince . I like it, it's kinda catchy.

Weezer have 4 self titled albums

RJOrion said:

Control was Janet Jackson's 3rd album... its easy to forget her 1st 2 albums... Janet Jackson Dream Street

I once owned those two on vinyl. I didn't hate the Janet Jackson album (though it would rate about a 3 out of 10), but Dream Street I thought was truly dreadful. I mean, who on earth thought that pairing Janet with Cliff Richard would be a good move? In 1984, a successful recording career must have seen a distant dream for Miss Jackson. So glad she hooked up with Jam & Lewis.

I don't know, not a clue. What I can tell you is that in contrast to the first album, it was done relatively quickly. The first album was painstakingly produced and went way overbudget. 800,000 if memory serves right. He said later that he had to prove he could sell records when For you only sold 200,000. Prince isn't nearly as well produced in terms of clarity and sound but is leagues beyond in songwriting and was truly the first "Prince" record in that it had all the kernels of what would germinate into the Prince of his prime. The duality, the androgny and with the music, the keyboards sounded more distinctive and you can hear the Minneapolis sound just beginning to come into the world.

bigd74 said:

Weezer have 4 self titled albums

And come to think of it, so does Peter Gabriel.

'Prince' may have been his second album, but wasn't it the first one to be released beyond America?

Therefore being the record that introduced him to the world? And so making sense of it being eponymous?

I thought that For You was released after 'Prince' garnered a few hits. I think that was the case in the UK, anyway.

until we find a more concrete answer, which photo could have been a better cover picture?

OldFriends4Sale said:

until we find a more concrete answer, which photo could have been a better cover picture?

First one or bottom middle

Rimshottbob said:

'Prince' may have been his second album, but wasn't it the first one to be released beyond America?

Therefore being the record that introduced him to the world? And so making sense of it being eponymous?

No. It was released in other countries in 1978.