SoulAlive said:

It's possible with the God thing but it's usually if it's in the title. I know that Kate bush's Running up that Hill was originally titled 'a deal with God' but she had to change it for release (although she kept it as a subtitle).

As fantastic as Anna Stesia is, I don't think it would have had major airplay.

Definitely Lovesexy, and maybe When 2 r in Love for singles.
[Edited 1/22/08 7:16am]

Here's my terribly long list of Prince songs I'd pick for singles
I Feel For You
Sexy Dancer
Head
When You Were Mine
How Come U Don't Call Me Anymore?
D.M.S.R., Automatic
Erotic City
She's Always in My Hair
4 the Tears in Your Eyes
Hello
Around the World in a Day
Sometimes it Snows in April
New Position, Girls & Boys
Housequake
Hot Thing
The Cross, It's Gonna Be a Beautiful Night
Adore
When 2 R in Love
Escape
Lovesexy
Electric Chair
Vicki Waiting or Trust
The Question of U, Tick,Tick,Bang!
Joy in Repetition, Still Would Stand All Time
Get Off (Nearly 10 Minutes)
Willing & Able / Push
Daddy Pop, Live 4 Love
Uh-Huh!
Wanna Melt With U, The Continental
Love 2 the 9's / The Max
And God Created Woman, 3 Chains O' Gold
Come,Pheremone
Dark, Loose!
The Ride
Lovesign
Endorphinmachine
Pussy Control
Dolphin, Shy
319, Now
Chaos & Disorder
Jam of the Year / Get Yo Groove On!
Joint 2 Joint / Sleep Around
Can't Make U Love Me, One Kiss at a Time, Dreamin' About U, Friend/Lover/Sister/Mother/Wife (arrgh too many good choices!)
Don't Play Me, Welcome 2 the Dawn
Mad Sex, The One, Wasted Kisses
So Far, So Pleased
Man O' War or Silly Game
Baby Knows or Prettyman
Hot Wit U (Nasty Girl Remix)
Beautiful Strange & a couple of the "High" songs from NPGMC
Mellow or She Loves Me 4 Me
1+1+1 is 3 or Family Name
The Everlasting Now / Last December
A Case of U
Props 'n' Pounds
Life O' the Party, What Do U Want Me 2 Do?
On the Couch, Reflection
Glass cutter
Incense & candles or The Dance
Lolita, Love
The 1 U Wanna C
Future Baby Mama / Mr. Goodnight or Resolution
Somewhere Here on Earth.

PurpleJedi said:

No, it wasn't released as a single in the US.
It was on the B-Side to Anotherloverholenyohead

Hmmmmm,

Private Joy,

Beautiful Ones

Play in the Sunshine

Lovesexy

Cindy C.

Vicki Waiting

Elephant & Flowers, Release It, Walk, Don't Walk

The Continental, Sweet Baby

We March

Sex in the Summer, One Kiss at a Time, Joint 2 Joint

Standing at the Altar (Prince should have done his own version)

Undisputed

Family Name

Dear Mr. Man

Lolita, Love

The One U Want 2 C

it kind of bugs me that the album 3121 didn't take off like it was supposed to. i think that if put together with a great video that love and incense and candles could of done some damage in the r&b and possibly pop charts.

housequake82 said:

true that the singles could have been promoted better...but the album did very well i thought. took off hugely id have said, coupled with musicology it put prince back on the map that he should own.

housequake82 said:

That album would have been HUGE if Prince and Universal had come together to promote the album properly. If you look at my list on the first page, I listed several songs that should have been singles. When Prince was on American Idol, why didn't he have Lolita sent out to radio stations after he performed it on the show? Stuff like that is what boggles me when it comes to Prince and his decisions for choosing or not choosing singles. Another case of "What could've been".

BorisFishpaw said:

Are you sure about that?
I could swear that I own the 45.
Next time I go to my parents' place, I'll dig my old records out.
So...what was "Alexa De Paris" the B-side to?

mentalist said:

AUTOMATIC

BorisFishpaw said:

I agree.The song "Lovesexy" definitely should have been a single! I heard that Prince was planning to release it,and even had remixes completed for it,but changed his mind at the last minute He chose "Glam Slam" instead,a bland song that went nowhere as a single.

PurpleJedi said:

"Alexa De Paris" was the B-side to "Mountains".Boris is right,"Girls And Boys" was the B-side of "Anotherloverholenyohead" here in the States.

A few of you listed "P Control"

come on now...you don't seriously believe that radio stations would have played that profanity-laced song?!

khoskhal said:

Yeah,I never understood why they didn't release "Automatic" as a single,especially since there was a video for it.I think it would have been a much stronger single than "Delirious",a fun,but less powerful song.The MTV/pop crowd would have turned "Automatic" into a Top 10 hit.

SoulAlive said:

It was released as a single.....in Australia!!

mentalist said:

Yeah,but I think it deserved to be a single here in America too

SoulAlive said:

Sure they would have. It would have been edited to high heaven but if they could have found a way to make it work. Certainly.:gigggle:

SoulAlive said:

I could slap Prince for that one. They were playing the song on the R&B radio stations here in NYC. That makes me go .

SoulAlive said:

I thought it was released as a single too since I had seen the video back in the 80's but I was shocked to hear otherwise. That song would have been huge. Automatic is still the cut!

purplecam said:

purplecam said:

Yeah,that song got alot of airplay here in the Bay Area (Cali) too.It would have been a great single.

What about "The Question Of U"? Prince picked that song as the first single from 'GB'.He even shot a video for it but I guess he changed his mind and went with "Thieves In The Temple" instead.


What do you think? Was "The Question Of U" worthy of being of a single?

SoulAlive said:

Actually it was the other way round. Glam Slam was lined up as the second single
then Prince changed his mind and wanted to release Lovesexy instead. But
because Glam Slam had already been pressed up ready to go they decided to issue
it as planned rather than shelve it. Radio edits and remixes of Lovesexy were all completed ready for a single release, so why it wasn't then issued as the
3rd single I don't know. Things went very quiet after Glam Slam's release and
there was quite a long gap before I Wish U Heaven finally came out.

BorisFishpaw said:

Thanks for the info.It's frustrating to know that "Lovesexy" came so close to being a single! Another missed opportunity.

SoulAlive said:

Yeah, it's just one in a long line of 'lost' singles. There's loads of tracks from
many albums that were considered for single release but then weren't. Some
had edits, extended versions and remixes made and some even got as far as
having artwork created. Here's a few 'almost' singles that I can think of off
the top of my head...

The Ballad Of Dorothy Parker
Housequake
Hot Thing
Strange Relationship
Lovesexy
Eye No
Trust
The Question Of U
Elephants & Flowers
Willing & Able
Walk Don't Walk
The Continental
The Max
Blue Light
Come
Loose!
Dolphin
P. Control
Endorphinmachine
The Same December
Slave
Face Down
Sleep Around
Extraordinary
5 Women
Man O' War
Baby Knows
So Far, So Pleased

SoulAlive said:

I do but not as the 1st single. If it would have been the 3rd single, then it would have been on point.

SoulAlive said:

Isn't that just disturbing? I mean why set up remixes for a single if you're not going to release the damn song? Damn, only Prince would do shit like this.

Hmmm....being that I've written threads that dealt with this subject matter in the past;

Private Joy
D.M.S.R.
Automatic
Lady Cab Driver (edited of course)
Darling Nikki (instead of Baby, I'm A Star AND the song Purple Rain)
Paisley Park
Hot Thing
Lovesexy (title cut)
Anna Stesia
Positivity

BorisFishpaw said:

All the songs that are bolded, my God, if I hadn't taken any Pepto Bismo before I saw this list, I'd be in the bathroom now. These songs or most of them would have been HUGE and would have taken many of the albums to greater sales but only in the mind of Prince would these fantastic songs never come out for the entire world to hear, radio not just on record. It's just plain sad as hell to see this list, even songs that I didn't put in bold.

purplecam said:

Believe me, it's VERY common for Prince. There's tons of unused remixes,
edits and extended versions of songs in the vault. And it's not just all the
unreleased singles, there's lots of unused mixes sitting there for tracks that
were singles too! Not just in-house extended versions and remixes, but
mixes commissioned by well known remixers too.
[Edited 1/23/08 13:37pm]

blackguitaristz said:

I know... and you're always spot on!

It's criminal that D.M.S.R. never got a proper release. That's one of my all
time favorite jams. I'd heard that there was a single edit made, but I think
it was originally just gonna wind up on the b-side to something else
unfortunately.