Hey, do you think Prince will ever release a covers album? With him doing so many covers in his gigs, I wonder if he has ever thought of releasing an album. Maybe we can hear the full version of Along the Watchtower

I highly doubt it. He would have done so by now, if he was going to do it His ego will now allow him to release a full album of covers.

DoggystyleLuvr said:

yeah he'd have to pay other people/estates.

No way would that fly.

DoggystyleLuvr said:

Yeah, not sure about that. Prince has been quite "experimental" since his emancipation from WB. I think while on WB, we'd not have "gems" () like N.E.W.S., Xpectation, C-Note, etc. But he did start to do covers on Emancipation. We almost have an EP's worth of stuff already, just in the official releases:

A Case of U (One Nite Alone)
La La Means I Love U (Emancipation)
Betcha By Golly Wow (Emancipation)
One Of Us (Emancipation)
I Can't Make U Love Me (Emancipation)
Crimson & Clover (LotusFlow3r)
Everyday Is A Winding Road (Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic)

I don't think I missed anything there.

Let's not dismiss Prince's understanding of how powerful a cover can be. Not the production or whatever, but the power of familiarity. He knows a lot of his former fans have lost touch w/ him, and vice versa. A cover song gives them something they know, and it pulls them back to him a bit. It was never a surprise to me that "Crimson & Clover" was released as a single. It was a very smart move. Smart enough that he hit #2 with a Target only album back in March. He also released "Betcha By Golly Wow" as a first single from Emancipation, and had a video for it, and talked about covers at the time. Again, familiarity, and it pulled some fans back to him...even for a little while.

The same thing can be said for the Rave album, and his working with so many different people. Gwen Stefani, Sheryl Crow, Eve, Chuck D. All big names in music at the time, and certainly served as a bit of pull to the album. Yet his horrible first single, delay on a video, and eventual utter disinterest in the album through the rest of the year all but sunk the album's viability and success. We all know better songs could have been released, INCLUDING the cover of "Everyday".
[Edited 12/8/09 10:47am]

ernestsewell said:

One of Us (Emancipation)

I was gonna suggest one can make their own covers album.

ernestsewell said:

*Snigger*

Marrk said:

WITHOUT Larry's chant in it. I edited the song and knocked out Larry's chant, and it's SUCH a better song.

Tori Amos once remarked how she would love Prince to cover Three Babies by Sinead O Connor.

Very interesting and loaded choice!

You could put Purple House on that list aswell.

Smillan said:

No.

Sylvester did an excellent job with Billie Holiday's "Lover Man (Where Can You Be)". I think Prince could do an even better job with it.

I Hope so.

I Love Harry Connick Jr.'s covers,...Rod Stewart's covers.

Prince could bring something special to some great songs out there...I'm sure that Clive Davis would agree with me....I'll give him a call.

i don't want him to do a whole cover album, but i would realy luv to hear him doing a cover version of MJ's "This Is It"