Can u relate? Can you debate? I believe with the March 21 release of 3121 this is Prince's 40th commercial / Internet release to date.

I came up with this number after looking at what Prince put out over the past 26-27 years.

Here is how I came up with the No. 40. First add all of the known releases -- everything from For You to 2004's Musicology. I also added the Madhouse projects 8 and 16, NPG's Gold Nigga, Exodus, & Newpower Soul, NPG Orchestra's Kamasutra, The Truth acoustic guitar & One Night Alone solo piano, and the NPG Music Club releases like The Slaughterhouse, Xpectation, and Silicon.

I am not adding the Hits 1, 2 and B-sides as well as The Very Best of Prince. Those are compilations. I as well did not include 1-800-New-Funk or The TIME, since The TIME is an entity all their own. Oh, I did not include THE WAR from 1998, since it was just one long (very long) joint.

I am, though, including The Vault: Old Friends 4 Sale, and Rave In2 The Joy Fantastic because it had alternate and extended tracks, that was released in 2000-01 with a new membership to the NPG Music Club. I also included One Nite Alone ... LIVE! and It Ain't Ova aftershow releases.

So, if I did the math correctly, Prince is hitting just about 40 releases since 1978's debut For You with this year's 3121.

It boggles the mind how many hours we are looking at here. It also boggles the mind how many hours Prince has shelved in The Vault at The Park.

Wonder what it will be like when he hits 50 releases. Will it be in 10 years? I think not. Could be sooner depending on how his creative mind works.

Nonetheless, counting the days until 3121 on 3/21.
[Edited 1/30/06 0:59am]

Did you count ONA..Live! and It Ain't Over a two releases?

Funny,

I happened to come to that same conclusion this weekend! That this was Prince's 40th album.
But I didn't count 8 or 16.
Actually, my conclusion was that it was impossible to count the number of albums by Prince because they are so all over the place! And that's what I like about them!
[Edited 1/30/06 1:13am]

It's very difficult to quantify the number of Prince's album releases.

You do not state exactly which online releases you quantify as albums - C-NOTE surely you must include if you're including Xpectation. You mention 'Silicon' which is not an album, just a track from Slaughterhouse? I wouldn't personally quantify the 'live from Paisley Park' tracks as an album, nor of course the other individual tracks available for download.

Some regard Slaughterhouse and The Chocolate Invasion more accurately as compilations, since the tracks were all more-or-less available individually during previous npgmusicclub incarnations.

If you're including such 'compilations' then surely you must include at least 'The B-sides' as well, which is again a compilation of previously available tracks.

You could argue that you can't include it seperately because it is only available as part of The Hits package.- but then you have included The Truth which is only available as part of the Crystal Ball package.

Rave In2 is not really a new album in its own right, just a remixed version of Rave Un2, some would say. If you argue that it is a new album simply because it has a few new songs on, then you have to put Girl 6 into the same category, since it is an album which is mainly previously released material with a few new songs on.

What you choose to leave in and take out really effects the total number, and that's purely a personal choice.
[Edited 1/30/06 7:36am]

There are currently fourteen Prince albums to date.

1977 94 East Featuring Prince Symbolic Beginning
1978 Prince For You
1979 Prince Prince
1980 Prince Dirty Mind
1981 The Time The Time
1981 Prince Controversy
1982 The Time What Time Is It ?
1982 Vanity 6 Vanity 6
1982 Prince 1999
1984 Sheila E. The Glamorous Life
1984 Prince And The Revolution Purple Rain
1984 The Time Ice Cream Castles
1984 Apollonia 6 Apollonia 6
1985 Prince And The Revolution Live
1985 Prince And The Revolution Around The World In A Day
1985 The Family The Family
1985 Sheila E. Romance 1600
1986 Prince And The Revolution Parade
1986 Prince And The Revolution Parade Live
1987 Madhouse 8
1987 Prince Sign “O” The Times
1987 Jill Jones Jill Jones
1987 Madhouse 16
1987 Prince Sign “O” The Times Live
1987 Prince The Black Album
1988 Prince Lovesexy
1988 Prince Lovesexy’88
1989 Mavis Staples Time Waits For No One
1989 Prince Batman
1989 Prince The B-sides
1990 Prince Graffiti Bridge
1990 Prince Live In Tokyo
1991 Eric Leeds Times Squared
1991 Prince And The New Power Generation Diamonds And Pearls
1992 Prince And The New Power Generation O+>
1992 Carmen Electra Carmen Electra
1993 New Power Generation Goldnigga
1993 Prince The Undertaker
1993 Prince The Sacrifice Of Victor
1994 Prince Come
1995 O+> The Gold Experience
1995 New Power Generation Exodus
1995 Mayte Child Of The Sun
1996 O+> Chaos And Disorder
1996 Prince The Vault… Old Friends 4 Sale
1996 O+> Emancipation
1997 NPG Orchestra Kamasutra
1997 O+> Crystal Ball
1997 O+> The Truth
1998 New Power Generation Newpower Soul
1998 Chaka Khan Come 2 My House
1998 Graham Central Station GCS 2000
1998 New Power Generation The War
1998 O+> Beautiful Strange
1999 O+> Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic
1999 O+> Rave Un2 The Year 2000
2001 Prince The Chocolate Invasion
2001 Prince The Slaughterhouse
2001 Prince The Rainbow Children
2001 Prince One Nite Alone…
2002 Prince Xpectation
2002 Prince And The New Power Generation One Nite Alone… Live
2002 Prince And The New Power Generation One Nite Alone… The Aftershow: It Ain’t Over
2002 Prince C-Note
2002 Prince Live At The Aladdin Las Vegas
2003 Prince N.E.W.S.
2004 Prince Musicology
2006 Prince 3121

That's 68 albums 4 me, not including compilations (Hits, Girl 6, Very Best Of) nor protegés album that contain less that 75% of Prince material (The Voice, Ingrid C., Elisa F., Pandemonium...)

.
[Edited 1/30/06 8:23am]
[Edited 1/30/06 8:23am]

shaomi said:

I don't know how you can include concert video releases as albums! That's a stretch. Even within that context, you have listed concerts that had a tv screening but not an official video release - such as the Parade concert and Nude tour in Tokyo! You might as well include the thousands of other bootleg concerts as 'albums'! Also, if you are going to include one-off single tracks like 'The War' as albums, you might as well include the over 10 minute long 'Days Of Wild' single from Montreal, and at the very least the 'Live From Paisley' online tracks!

metalorange said:

Yes, totally I agree. Forgive me I was tired when I typed Silicon, lol. It should have been The Chocolate Invasion. Yes, and I forgot Girl 6 because it had some new music on it.

I was just thinking about it because I'm of that age where I was around for every one of Prince's releases, or I knew of when Prince released his music (except when I did not know who Prince was back in the late 1970s).

It just boggles the mind that he's been around this long and he has a major laundry list of songs that are still stashed away in The Vault. It's also amazing to see how many CDs and vinyl records and cassettes and 45s and 12-inches I have in my Prince collection from over the years.

Regardless, Prince has put out quite a lot, and although I look forward to 3121 in the coming months, I will always eagerly anticipate a new release by Prince -- be it a album-compilation or just an Internet download.
[Edited 1/30/06 9:30am]

shaomi said:

52

and I would add '1-800-NEW-FUNK' cuz it's still an album of (mostly) then-new material

53!






If we were to count discs like the RIAA would, then we would have

57!

cont...

so, that would make '3121' #58.


UNLESS

that album from Tamar will be entirely produced by Prince,
then we'll have

59!

nayroo2002 said:

What would be your reason for not including C-NOTE?

I think people are making up their own rules about what constitutes a 'Prince'
album if you've come up with 40.

Let's count the boxes and see...












Nope, not the 40th

But you're missing the Madhouse albums, Gargamel. Now, if you're saying you don't count them becaue it's not "Prince", you cannot count " " either.

metalorange said:

I guess cuz it's "live" and more of an EP.

I never understood why "The Beautiful Experience" was often listed as a proper album, either.

I edited that list from Shaomi a bit to exclude live releases/broadcasts and Best Of compilations, except for the 'B-sides' cuz those songs deserve their own "Album"!!!
[Edited 1/30/06 14:37pm]

BorisFishpaw said:

Well,

Even though the actual name "Prince" isn't printed on every album he's produced, there are at least 50.

One obvious example would be The Time's first three albums.
"The Time" was essentially another moniker Prince used as a musical outlet.
Anything under "The Starr Company" was.
I have always counted these releases as Prince albums.

nayroo2002 said:

The problem is, if you count the Time, then you should be counting The Family, Vanity 6, Apollonia 6, Sheila E, Madhouse, Jill Jones, The NPG, Sheila E, etc.

And then it leads onto Mavis, Ingrid, etc, etc, etc.

The simplest rule is to say Prince (or ) has to be the artist name on the sleeve of the record (or in the case of an internet release, the name the digital media was released under), AND the record has to be a new release, not a compilation release.

Now,IMO, TCI and TSH do NOT come under this - but I can see how fans who weren't around for the first year of the NPGMC might want to include them.

Bottom line - Prince's name(s) has to be the name of the artist on the release.

NouveauDance said:

I would include TCI and TSH in these, since they're not compilations in the same sense that The Hits and VBOP are.

In this case, the albums are:

For You
Prince
Dirty Mind
Controversy
1999
Purple Rain
Around The World In A Day
Parade
Sign "O" The Times
Lovesexy
Batman
Graffiti Bridge
Diamonds And Pearls

Come
The Black Album
The Gold Experience
Chaos And Disorder
Emancipation
Crystal Ball / The Truth
The Vault... Old Friends 4 Sale
Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic
The Rainbow Children
One Nite Alone...
One Nite Alone... Live! / It Ain't Over...
Xpectation
C-Note
NEWS
The Chocolate Invasion
The Slaughterhouse
Musicology

Which all brings up an interesting conclusion. If you take out ONA Live (as a live compilation of tracks from other albums), 3121 is his 31st album...

NouveauDance said:

I agree with the first line of your response.
I would definately include Vanity 6, Apollonia 6, Sheila E (first two), The Family, Jill Jones, Madhouse, NPG,
also:
Mayte,

But, why not 'The Chocolate Invasion' or 'The Slaughterhouse'?
They are officially relased "e"albums, are they not?

I see those two releases as kind of a "behind-the-scenes" look into how an album is made. The songs were previewed and "leaked" on the NPGMC before single downloads and the Musicolgy store came into play. Then fans, reguardless if they had a membership or not, heard them as if they were "bootlegs", so to speak.

Then, after a few years, they were sequenced (and sometimes remixed a bit) into albums!

I know that the majority of the songs were for the 'High' album and the next NPG release, but that's not too far fetched from, say, 'Dream Factory'-'Crystal Ball'-'Sign 'O' The Times' or that '93-'95 period.

ok
enuff

I don't contest TSH and TCI as releases per se. I just don't personally count them as canon albums, it's no biggie if you do - just my criteria.


The material on these compilations was NOT recorded especially for these two projects, thus there's no 'behind the scenes' view of how an album is made, they are 'post-humous' compilations, as it were.

In this respect, one could say 'What about the Black album, none of the material was recorded especially for that release?' - Yet none of that material had received previous official release before the intended street date in Dec.1987, unlike with these two compilations.

The same difference applies with DF/Camille/CB = SOTT and 93-95/The Dawn = Come/TGE.

It's a simple distinction - It's all very pedantic, but I don't include TCI and TSH as bonefide albums - but that's just my opinion.

We could say it's Prince's opinion that counts, but then he might not include The Black Album, Come, C&D or The Vault.

//
[Edited 1/30/06 15:34pm]

I agree with Nouveau on this issue. I prefer to keep strict criteria as to what
counts as a 'Prince' album. For starters it HAS to be credited to "Prince" or
"" on the cover, anything else should really be considered a side project.
It's also the criteria Prince himself uses when distinguishing his back
catalogue. So no, Newpower Soul is NOT a Prince album, it is an 'NPG' album
just like Goldnigga and Exodus, and should be listed seperately, just as the
Madhouse albums should be or The Time etc.

So using the strictest criteria (and not including greatest hits albums or
other compilations) the list would be...

1. FOR YOU - Prince
2. PRINCE - Prince
3. DIRTY MIND - Prince
4. CONTROVERSY - Prince
5. 1999 - Prince
6. PURPLE RAIN - Prince and the Revolution
7. AROUND THE WORLD IN A DAY - Prince and the Revolution
8. PARADE - Prince and the Revolution
9. SIGN O' THE TIMES - Prince
10. LOVESEXY - Prince
11. BATMAN - Prince
12. GRAFFITI BRIDGE - Prince
13. DIAMONDS AND PEARLS - Prince and the New Power Generation
14. - Prince and the New Power Generation
15. COME - Prince
16. "THE BLACK ALBUM" - Prince
17. THE GOLD EXPERIENCE -
18. CHAOS AND DISORDER -
19. EMANCIPATION -
20. CRYSTAL BALL / THE TRUTH -
21. THE VAULT...OLD FRIENDS 4 SALE - Prince
22. RAVE UN2 THE JOY FANTASTIC -
23. THE RAINBOW CHILDREN - Prince
24. ONE NITE ALONE...
25. ONE NITE ALONE...LIVE! / IT AIN'T OVER - Prince and the New Power Generation
26. XPECTATION - Prince
27. C-NOTE - Prince and the New Power Generation
28. NEWS - Prince
29. MUSICOLOGY - Prince
30. 3121 - Prince


In the end I decided that The Chocolate Invasion and The Slaughterhouse didn't
count as genuine new albums as 1: they are compilations of tracks released
3 or 4 years earlier 2: they are clearly labelled as "best of the NPGMC trax"
Volumes 1 & 2. And 3: They consist of a mixture of tracks credited to 'Prince',
'' and 'The NPG'.

.
[Edited 1/30/06 17:38pm]

NouveauDance said:

With the one clear exception of "Newpower Soul". It'd be completely silly to suggest it's not a Prince album, when he's doing all the lead vocals himself.

Nouveau,
Boris,

you're both right for filing purposes.
Prince or has it's own shelf at my house, too.
The "side projects" and protegés are filed on a shelf below it.
HOWEVER
I tend to consider those side projects Prince albums, also.

--Produced, Arranged, Composed#, and Performed* by Prince--

...just like most other "Prince/" albums!

Justify it however you like, but those "side projects" are a mere disguise

i would have just counted what is listed on the NPGMC website. you know those three rooms with all the books shelves and lil coffee tables and things?

if anything, i bet those are considered "official".

what i would like to know is how many "albums" are there? cuz i mean, if you think about it...The Dream Factory, Camille and High where albums but they got shelved.

I would argue that "The Truth" is a seperate album.

It may have been packaged with CB, but it was clearly advertised as a seperate new acoustic album. It was bundled in with CB for markeing purposes.

It would be like saying Michael Jackson never had a studio album called History, because it came bundled with a compilation disc. It is clearly an album in its own right.

Personally, I also include Madhouse, Karma Sutra and New Power soul. They are quite obviously Prince records.

I do however keep the other artist seperate (eg Time). I also think if anyone is going to include Sheila, then you need to put her third album in, as Prince is still all over it, almost as much as the second.

Novabreaker said:

It's all Prince on lead vocals, and he's the only face on the CD cover, so I agree with you - But I still wouldn't list it as a 'Prince' album, because of the name on the CD - It goes with the other NPG albums under 'Related Artists', for me.

nayroo2002 said:

Oh yes, I'm not saying that all those side projects aren't "Prince". I'm
just a stickler for correct labelling and filing.

What Prince puts on the cover of an album, and how he decides to label it
are imporant to him. It reflects how he wants a particular album to be
percieved, and what context it should be viewed in.

Newpower Soul is a prime example. Yes it's got a picture of him on the
front and he sings lead on the album, but it is still NOT a "Prince"
album... it is an "NPG" album. It was NOT made to be viewed in the same
context as 'Emancipation' or 'The Gold Experience'. It was designed to
be viewed in the same context as 'Goldnigga' and 'Exodus'. It's all about
respect for the artists wishes, and what context they want their art
viewed in.

It's like saying that the Gorillaz album is really by Blur cuz Damon Albarn
sings on it, or that the Tin Machine albums are really David Bowie records.
If an artist decides to release an album under a different name, they are
making a statement about the content and the fact that it should be viewed
separately, and not considered as the next follow-up. They are stating that
this is a detour down a 'side road', not the next stop on the main road
that they're travelling.

metalorange said:

I include video releases because since dvd exists these can b listened 2 as much as watched. I "listen" 2 the videos much more than i "watch" them. I included promo concerts because Per Nielsen lists promos as "official" releases, there4 so do i. There EXIST "official" tapes of the Parade & Tokyo concerts, though they're very rare.
"The War" is an entity in itself, much more than a single. A 26 minute album wasn't unusual back in the 60's or 70's. Tricky & Bjork released 30 minutes-long albums not so long ago.
I included "protégés" albums as long as they contained at least 75% of Prince material. As Eric Leeds once said, "The Family" is as much a Prince album as "Parade". From the moment Prince composed, arranged & recorded an album (or was completely involved in the creative process as arranger, player & producer in the case of "GCS 2000"), it makes such an album a "Prince" album, no matter what's written on the cover.

As many said, anyway, what is an album or what's not is purely subjective.

BorisFishpaw said:

If you're not counting TCI or Slaughterhouse, then you should not count C-Note either. BUT - should we count the 2 separate versions of Rave?

Se7en said:

The material on C-Note wasn't available elsewhere before it's release though.