After reading the thread "Prince songs you think he made a mistake not releasing as a single", I wanted to start a thread in the opposite direction of that one and ask you guys which songs you think Prince shouldn't have released as singles. Songs that made you go when you heard that these songs were going to be released and not other songs that you loved. My list goes like this:

Let's Pretend We're Married
Take Me With U*
If I Was Your Girlfriend
Glam Slam*
The Arms of Orion
The Morning Papers*
Betcha By Golly Wow
The Greatest Romance Ever Sold*
Cinnamon Girl
Te Amo Corazon

* I would have had other songs off the albums these songs with asterisks were on come out before these mentioned songs, if they were going to be released at all.
[Edited 1/24/08 11:39am]

Black Sweat

i'll agree with take me with u

r u including b sides or just a side singles btw?

cause the only b side song i can think of is girl


but let's continue with a side tracks:

glam slam
the arms of orion
cream
the morning papers
eye hate u
betcha by golly wow
the holy river
the greatest romance ever sold as a lead single
fury

L4OATheOriginal said:

I agree with you on Fury. And I totally forgot about The Holy River There were too many great songs on Emancipation for Prince to release and he released that one and Betcha... which I liked but was wrong for being the 1st single for a project like that. That was our first taste of "what freedom sounded like"

You can put B-Sides on here if you want. Any and everything is excepted.

purplecam said:

i don't really think any singles shouldn't have been as such.

the only two i still have a bit of a gripe with are the two
mentioned above.

the morning papers was a poor choice since he already had the
continental lined up for a single release (as stated on the
album sticker at the time). so why he chose to pull that in
favour of the morning papers, is simply beyond me. it would
have been a much better single.

and betcha by golly wow is probably the worst lead-off single
he ever released.

he's finally free to release what he wants, when he wants and
to launch his 36 song triple album of new material he chooses
this sugar coated cover? oh god.

i also don't get all the hate for "the greatest romance ever sold"
i think it's one of about 5 great songs on rave. the rest of that
album is just urgh.

but that song is a stand out for me, i really love everyting about
it.

IstenSzek said:

I'm on team "Greatest Romance" too. I know it's a little canned, but I like it.

Here's my list.I'm not saying that these songs are terrible,but there are better songs on the same albums that should have been the singles instead.


"Take Me With U"---"The Beautiful Ones" should have been the fifth and final single from 'Purple Rain'."Take Me With U" isn't anything special.
"America"
"Mountains"
"If I Was Your Girlfriend"---I really love this song,but Prince was nuts to release it as a single.It slowed down the momentum of the 'SOTT' album and I don't think most listeners really understood the songs' message.
"Glam Slam"---a bland and boring rocker that went nowehere as a single,despite a very good video.
"Partyman"
"The Arms Of Orion"
"New Power Generation"
"Money Don't Matter 2Night"
"The Morning Papers"---the 'LoveSymbol' album contains all those amazing songs like "The Continental","And God Created Woman" and "Love 2 The 9s",and he chooses this as a single?!
"Betcha By Golly Wow"
"The Greatest Romance Ever Sold"

IstenSzek said:

It's a bland song and it's too reminiscent of "TMBGITW",another song that's decent,but not very exciting.

IstenSzek said:

I like this song alot too, but totally agree that it was not a good choice for first release. I still can't believe that Prettyman is a hidden track!

But do you seriously think that Black sweat and Fury are bad single choices? They're my favourite songs not just from that album but within this decade!

I'm gonna have to back to this as I don't want to confuse what 'I' like with what actually makes a (commercially good) single release.

The problem with Betcha By Golly WOW, TGRES and Te Amo Corazon is not that they're bad songs (except for Betcha...), but that they were released as lead singles to highly anticipated albums (his 1st one after his break from WB, his return to a major label with Clive David etc.). And they're simply not musically interesting or good enough to get people excited. So when the album comes out, it seems like a bit of an anticlimax.

O.K! After much deliberation the only songs that I don't care for as singles aor think are a good representation of the albums are,

Delerious,
My name is Prince,
The morning papers.

The 2 singles released from Emancipation are not particularly bad but definately not the best 2 songs from the album - although BBGW was totally done as a tribute to his soon to be born child - which makes the video even sadder to watch. I think the Holy River got chosen for similar reasons.

All the others you mentioned Cam - I really like.

And Girl???? That would be my 7th favourite b-side after La,la,la,he,he,hee at 6!!! (1-5 are in the relevant thread!)! Ah, my flesh is on fire!!!!

phunkymunky said:

Exactly! And why release a slow/midtempo song as the first single anyway? A Prince album should ALWAYS have a relentless,kickass uptempo jam for the first single.

IstenSzek said:

I like the song but I think he made a mistake in making it the first single. If So Far So Pleased and Baby Knows had come out first and second, then it should have been the 3rd single.
[Edited 1/25/08 6:12am]

mentalist said:

I like the songs I mentioned too but I think they weren't good choices for singles. In some cases, they came out at the wrong time IMHO, like Glam Slam. I didn't even mention Mountains. That should not have been the follow up to Kiss. That should have been Girls and Boys, IMHO.

purplecam said:

Definitely agree that G & B should've been the second single. (it was released in the u.k. as the 4th and seemed to be done as a bit of a desperation move proved slightly with the 7" being coupled with a bonus single)

Glam Slam I like. Lovesexy would have been the best follow up to Alphabet st - but I would still keep GS as the single after that. Possibly change I wish u heaven with When 2 r in love as the last one.

Damn U was a weak single.

mentalist said:

I'm with you 100% on that.

phunkymunky said:

Especially when there were songs on those CD's that were 10 times stronger then the slow ones released. 3121 could have done more damage on the charts if he'd released either Black Sweat or Love first IMO. Stuff like that baffles me to this day. Too many "coulda woulda shoulda's" with Prince.

funksterr said:

Oh, but such a beautiful song!!!!

A better choice woulda been And God created woman.

funksterr said:

IMO, I think that Damn U should have been released as a pop single as well as an R&B single here in the states. I believe it would have been as huge as Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You", released at the same time as Damn U. I will always stand by that.

IstenSzek said:

as a lead off single hot wit u would have been better cause of the tempo and because it featured eve who was HOT at the time on the radio

mentalist said:

girl makes me want 2 hang myself

SoulAlive said:

all the time a funk jam should kick off his projects

L4OATheOriginal said:

I agree.