Which artist out of all Prince Associated Acts should have been hugely successful but unfortunately wasn't?

Which album out of all of them should have been a hit everywhere but flopped?

(You can leave out Apollonia, Denise Matthews VanityR.I.P....... as they did have success in music, film & TV.)

For me : Jill Jones! She was (& still is) a great singer and looked stunning. Prince apparently refused to let her out of her contract with him when she did not want to release a 2nd album, which meant she was in musical limbo for several years and could not sign another contract or with another label - not releasing a single for 6 years (1993) & not releasing another album until 2001, some 14 years after her debut!

The debut album in 1987 got some good reviews but did not sell well, and I would say it was not really well promoted. Also bearing in mind Paisley Park had several releases in that year and the one before. Had it been really well promoted, it could have sold better and the singles performed better also, though granted not a multi million selling hit worldwide. Not sure either if distribution from Warner Bros. was great.

Not sure if it is known if she had offers from record companies etc after she left Prince but was just unable to legally take them, though it seems likely she would have and that had he not held her to that contract she would have gone on to bigger things. She could also have done more movie work but maybe that is something she had no interest in doing.

The contract/record co. situation reminded me of Irene Cara, she had dispute with he record company in the 80's and was effectively blacklisted and it pretty much ended her career or any chance of superstardom, she didn't release another album until 2011 - 24 years after her last one! She still works and does appearances etc but those Golden Years that should have put her up there with Donna Summer, Diana Ross, etc were lost.

The Jill Jones album would probably make my top 10 Prince albums in general.

If Prince handled it a little different, the Time, Sheila E, Madhouse, the Family could have been HUGELY Successful.

And it wasn't possible for Jill Jones 1987 album at the time to be, She should have had at least 2 between 1983 - 1986

yeah,the Jill Jones album should have been recorded and ready for release in late 84 or early 85' with "Sugar Walls" as her first single.That way,she would have been able to take advantage of the Purple Rain hype."Blue Limousine" would have been a strong second single for her.The album would have been a major success.

SoulAlive said:

yeah,the Jill Jones album should have been recorded and ready for release in late 84 or early 85' with "Sugar Walls" as her first single.That way,she would have been able to take advantage of the Purple Rain hype."Blue Limousine" would have been a strong second single for her.The album would have been a major success.

Jill Jones, The Family & Mazarati!!! \

Jill Jones

The Time post-Purple Rain

Maybe Taja Sevelle and Margie Cox?

The Family?

-

Those are the only ones I can think of. Most others more or less had their moment.

I think André Cymone WAS more or less successful even long after he parted ways with Prince. He produced many songs for his wife Jody Watley, and nobody was stopping him from continuing his solo career after his solo albums that are still loved and cherished to this day (so much that they were even re-released a few years ago).

.

Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, and to some extent André Cymone, were or are still successful and they all probably made the right decision when they left the Prince camp but think of all the possibilities if Prince, Jimmy, Terry and André had continued working and producing together.

Paisley Park could have been the Motown Records of the 80s and 90s, or maybe even more.

Even up until the 90s people like Devante Swing from Jodeci and the Toni Tony Tone guys were thinking of signing a contract with Prince.

Now imagine if those guys had signed with Paisley, too, and on top of that Jimmy Jam, Terry and André ? Prince and his label would have been unstoppable.

If Prince handled his band better ie the Time & Vanity(6) when Purple Rain hit that era would have been much bigger than it was. -not firing Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis, and Vanity staying on.
Sheila E should have been in the movie somehow too.
And a Jill Jones album with a new band.

During the Parade era (if the UTCM movie) had band scenes and the proteges were in that movie, showcasing Sheila E, the Family etc there is no doubt that era would have been huge.

Maybe because I'm a rock fan, but I was really rooting for Dez to get his moment. Visually he was easily recognized from the P videos. I remember people cheering and clapping during his brief scene in "P.R." going; "That's him!!".....Plus he was a good player too. I think later on (like Jesse),he would have broke away from the synth-drum machine thing and would have had more guitar in the mix...He did tour with Billy Idol, Cheap Trick (I think) and he would have fit right in with the MTV funk-rock thing that was popular in the late 80's.....And even though he would never admit it, I think P really liked Dez's playing and style. He was "Richards/Perry" to P's "Jagger/Tyler" vibe.

Yeah me too..The Rebels stuff was online for a while but the "Purple Police" shut that down real quick..Good stuff from what I can recall...The girls liked Andre just as much as they liked P..lol, maybe he was a little threatened a little by that...But yes their chemistry onstage was so cool and raw...I love the "Prince/Dirty Mind" era a lot because visually they were all bringing it....I'm glad Andre is back and doing his thing, but I'm not feeling his new music. I'd like to see him grab his bass and get the groove back.

SPYZFAN1 said:

Yeah me too..The Rebels stuff was online for a while but the "Purple Police" shut that down real quick..Good stuff from what I can recall...The girls liked Andre just as much as they liked P..lol, maybe he was a little threatened a little by that...But yes their chemistry onstage was so cool and raw...I love the "Prince/Dirty Mind" era a lot because visually they were all bringing it....I'm glad Andre is back and doing his thing, but I'm not feeling his new music. I'd like to see him grab his bass and get the groove back.

I need a bass verson of Sireality.............from Dre.

KoolEaze said:

Paisley Park could have been the Motown Records of the 80s and 90s, or maybe even more.

Even up until the 90s people like Devante Swing from Jodeci and the Toni Tony Tone guys were thinking of signing a contract with Prince.

Now imagine if those guys had signed with Paisley, too, and on top of that Jimmy Jam, Terry and André ? Prince and his label would have been unstoppable.

Exactly! So many missed opportunities.I've said this many times.Instead of firing Jam and Lewis,Prince should have offered them a production deal at Paisley Park Records.Just think,an artist like Jill Jones might have gotten a major hit single like "I Didn't Mean To Turn You On".Prince could have offered Andre Cymone a similiar deal,too.I wanted Paisley Park Records to be a legitimate label,instead of the vanity label that it turned out to be.

SoulAlive said:

KoolEaze said:

Paisley Park could have been the Motown Records of the 80s and 90s, or maybe even more.

Even up until the 90s people like Devante Swing from Jodeci and the Toni Tony Tone guys were thinking of signing a contract with Prince.

Now imagine if those guys had signed with Paisley, too, and on top of that Jimmy Jam, Terry and André ? Prince and his label would have been unstoppable.

Exactly! So many missed opportunities.I've said this many times.Instead of firing Jam and Lewis,Prince should have offered them a production deal at Paisley Park Records.Just think,an artist like Jill Jones might have gotten a major hit single like "I Didn't Mean To Turn You On".Prince could have offered Andre Cymone a similiar deal,too.I wanted Paisley Park Records to be a legitimate label,instead of the vanity label that it turned out to be.

Or maybe a duet with Alexander O´Neal and Jill Jones instead of Cherelle.

-

Totally agree with you. Especially about Jill Jones.

Maybe all those things you mentioned above did happen in some parallel universe.

Like those "What if...." stories of Marvel Comics.

But...man, that would have changed the musical landscape in a major way. Too bad that the egos of those great artists obviously clashed a bit too often.

woogiebear said:

SoulAlive said:

yeah,the Jill Jones album should have been recorded and ready for release in late 84 or early 85' with "Sugar Walls" as her first single.That way,she would have been able to take advantage of the Purple Rain hype."Blue Limousine" would have been a strong second single for her.The album would have been a major success.

Jill Jones, The Family & Mazarati!!! \

Mazarati were 100% PURE CHEESE! lol. I liked their album but it was not especially unique sounding and their image even for the 80's maybe alienated some. They were almost Living Color before Living Color were lol - fusing rock with funk, etc.

[Edited 3/4/16 2:50am]

SoulAlive said:

yeah,the Jill Jones album should have been recorded and ready for release in late 84 or early 85' with "Sugar Walls" as her first single.That way,she would have been able to take advantage of the Purple Rain hype."Blue Limousine" would have been a strong second single for her.The album would have been a major success.

Well said! Had her first album or at least singles been released in '84 or '85 she would have had much bigger success and taken advantage of Purple Rain success.

Jill is a great singer with unique voice! She'd vocally blow away quite a few successful female singers today e.g. Jill recently posted they should have got someone that could sing about Lorde's performance at Brit Awards doing Bowie's 'Space Oddity', no question that Jill is a better singer than her technically and in terms of emotional depth I'd say better too.

[Edited 3/4/16 2:51am]

KoolEaze said:

Jill Jones

The Time post-Purple Rain

Maybe Taja Sevelle and Margie Cox?

The Family?

-

Those are the only ones I can think of. Most others more or less had their moment.

I think André Cymone WAS more or less successful even long after he parted ways with Prince. He produced many songs for his wife Jody Watley, and nobody was stopping him from continuing his solo career after his solo albums that are still loved and cherished to this day (so much that they were even re-released a few years ago).

.

Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, and to some extent André Cymone, were or are still successful and they all probably made the right decision when they left the Prince camp but think of all the possibilities if Prince, Jimmy, Terry and André had continued working and producing together.

Paisley Park could have been the Motown Records of the 80s and 90s, or maybe even more.

Even up until the 90s people like Devante Swing from Jodeci and the Toni Tony Tone guys were thinking of signing a contract with Prince.

Now imagine if those guys had signed with Paisley, too, and on top of that Jimmy Jam, Terry and André ? Prince and his label would have been unstoppable.

Prince's quality control unfortunately dropped drastically with Paisley Park label onwards - doing his own work, as well as producing , playing & writing for others, signing multiple artists, etc it resulted in quantity over quality. There was some good stuff on Paisley Park Jill Jones, The Family etc but overall it wasn't great output. Prince's ability to know what could be a potential hit & what the public wanted seemed to get blurred with Paisley Park era too - Jam & Lewis for instance had FAR more success because they knew how to make hits and what would sell. Prince should have signed acts with totally different styles & not tried to mould them into a Prince type sound & just let them do their own thing e.g. some Heavy Metal/Hard Rock Acts, Country & Western, etc.

OldFriends4Sale said:

The Time, Morris Day, Vanity 6, Vanity, Sheila E.

They were all shite except Sheila and The Family, and even they had a pish singer imo. Jill Jones had a certain charm and Madhouse was cool I suppose. Hugely successful...lol.