Hi

I was wondering if we know why Rave's promotion was abruptly stopped after 2 months, with no single being released after TGRES. I mean it's weird, this was supposed to be a hit album and even with the first single being a flop, they could have tried another one at least! I think I remember reading in Alex Hahn's book that P had an argument with Arista because he blamed them for the flop of TGRES and he treated them so badly that they told him to go fuck himself and declined to do anything else with the project, but that's a blurry memory and I'm not sure. Anyone knows the full story?

Thx

Baby Knows and Man O War were released, to a degree, as singles as well

http://www.princevault.co..._Fantastic

TGRES flopped because he released the video two months after the single. Prince's days of sustained album sales had been long gone even by then so i don't think he ever had a chance of it sticking around the charts even if a second single WAS a hit.

He planned So Far So Pleased as the second single but No Doubts label refused.

SuperSoulFighter said:

Thanx for the link, Luv, it only makes me fantasize more about a good follow-up to Lovesexy that might have been... As to the sorry excuse for an album that the late 90s version of Rave was, I guess both Prince and Arista realized it was going nowhere and decided to send it to an early

yw

Why did TGRES chart in the UK in Feb 2000 when the single was released in Nov 1999

And why was the Rave album uneligable to chart in the UK i cant remember?

I believe I read,

Rave Un2 the album only sold 7,000 copies in the UK, in it's first week.

[Edited 9/20/13 11:35am]

RumAndRaisin said:

Why did TGRES chart in the UK in Feb 2000 when the single was released in Nov 1999

And why was the Rave album uneligable to chart in the UK i cant remember?

The original single CD had too many remixes on the disc, making it uneligable for UK chart entry.

The song was played to death on UK radio, particularly Radio 2. It had a lot of hit potential, it's a shame they botched up the release so poorly.

A lot of mistakes were made by the record company around this time. For once, I think Prince was justified in being pissed at his label. Prince played his part, he did a shit tonne of promo, TV appearances, press interviews... and Arista couldn't even give the lead single a proper commercial release in a timely manner.

I actually think Rave was a great comeback attempt and it was a real shame it went tits up. There's some stellar stuff on that record, songs like I Love U But I Don't Trust U Anymore, TGRES, Wherever U Go Whatever U Do, Strange But True... amongst some of the best stuff he did in the 90s.

I imagined the thread was about why it had gone out of print...

The album was a Clive Davis project at Arista. Clive Davis was fired right after it was released.

luv4u said:

http://www.princevault.co..._Fantastic

Not that one

timmie said:

Baby Knows and Man O War were released, to a degree, as singles as well

Promos only, not available for purchase.

alandail said:

The album was a Clive Davis project at Arista. Clive Davis was fired right after it was released.

Really? I thought I remembered that he'd been fired BECAUSE the album had been a flop, not the opposite

MattyJam said:

RumAndRaisin said:

Why did TGRES chart in the UK in Feb 2000 when the single was released in Nov 1999

And why was the Rave album uneligable to chart in the UK i cant remember?

The original single CD had too many remixes on the disc, making it uneligable for UK chart entry.

The song was played to death on UK radio, particularly Radio 2. It had a lot of hit potential, it's a shame they botched up the release so poorly.

A lot of mistakes were made by the record company around this time. For once, I think Prince was justified in being pissed at his label. Prince played his part, he did a shit tonne of promo, TV appearances, press interviews... and Arista couldn't even give the lead single a proper commercial release in a timely manner.

I actually think Rave was a great comeback attempt and it was a real shame it went tits up. There's some stellar stuff on that record, songs like I Love U But I Don't Trust U Anymore, TGRES, Wherever U Go Whatever U Do, Strange But True... amongst some of the best stuff he did in the 90s.

Interesting, from what I remembered Alex hahn put the blame on P not Arista (but this book is an anti-Prince manifesto anyway). It's true that P did his share of promo with all the european TV shows and stuff. And these fuckers from No Doubts' label really killed a great single by preventing So Far, So Good to be released. Still, we still don't know what heppened exactly :s

databank said:

luv4u said:

http://www.princevault.co..._Fantastic

Not that one

Hey, others may find the link interesting

luv4u said:

databank said:

Not that one

Hey, others may find the link interesting

Yes, but what does it have do do with anything?

The album flopped because of a familiar reason: the wrong singles were released.

TGRES is not a terrible song,but it's a boring first single.I think it was only chosen because of its similarity to "TMBGITW" (which was a huge hit).

The obvious choice for first single was "So Far,So Pleased".

Another problem with this album is...Prince and Clive Davis were clearly trying to make another 'Supernatural',but that strategy doesn't work everytime.

databank said:

Hi

I was wondering if we know why Rave's promotion was abruptly stopped after 2 months, with no single being released after TGRES. I mean it's weird, this was supposed to be a hit album and even with the first single being a flop, they could have tried another one at least! I think I remember reading in Alex Hahn's book that P had an argument with Arista because he blamed them for the flop of TGRES and he treated them so badly that they told him to go fuck himself and declined to do anything else with the project, but that's a blurry memory and I'm not sure. Anyone knows the full story?

Thx

Prince and Clive Davis got into a heated argument and Clive told Prince "Everyone warned me not to work with you".This project was doomed from the start.Prince had spent most of the 90s complaining about the big record companies and their evil ways,and yet here he was,jumping into bed with the devil again.I knew there were gonna be problems.

SoulAlive said:

The album flopped because of a familiar reason: the wrong singles were released.

TGRES is not a terrible song,but it's a boring first single.I think it was only chosen because of its similarity to "TMBGITW" (which was a huge hit).

The obvious choice for first single was "So Far,So Pleased".

Another problem with this album is...Prince and Clive Davis were clearly trying to make another 'Supernatural',but that strategy doesn't work everytime.

This seems to be the most logical response.

RumAndRaisin said:

TGRES flopped because he released the video two months after the single. Prince's days of sustained album sales had been long gone even by then so i don't think he ever had a chance of it sticking around the charts even if a second single WAS a hit.

Will history repeat itself with "Breakfast Can Wait"...time will tell

SoulAlive said:

databank said:

Hi

I was wondering if we know why Rave's promotion was abruptly stopped after 2 months, with no single being released after TGRES. I mean it's weird, this was supposed to be a hit album and even with the first single being a flop, they could have tried another one at least! I think I remember reading in Alex Hahn's book that P had an argument with Arista because he blamed them for the flop of TGRES and he treated them so badly that they told him to go fuck himself and declined to do anything else with the project, but that's a blurry memory and I'm not sure. Anyone knows the full story?

Thx

Prince and Clive Davis got into a heated argument and Clive told Prince "Everyone warned me not to work with you".This project was doomed from the start.Prince had spent most of the 90s complaining about the big record companies and their evil ways,and yet here he was,jumping into bed with the devil again.I knew there were gonna be problems.

Yes! That's the story I remember! So basically after that Davis dropped the whole project and canceled the subsequent singles?

SoulAlive said:

databank said:

Hi

I was wondering if we know why Rave's promotion was abruptly stopped after 2 months, with no single being released after TGRES. I mean it's weird, this was supposed to be a hit album and even with the first single being a flop, they could have tried another one at least! I think I remember reading in Alex Hahn's book that P had an argument with Arista because he blamed them for the flop of TGRES and he treated them so badly that they told him to go fuck himself and declined to do anything else with the project, but that's a blurry memory and I'm not sure. Anyone knows the full story?

Thx

Prince and Clive Davis got into a heated argument and Clive told Prince "Everyone warned me not to work with you".This project was doomed from the start.Prince had spent most of the 90s complaining about the big record companies and their evil ways,and yet here he was,jumping into bed with the devil again.I knew there were gonna be problems.

databank said:

MattyJam said:

The original single CD had too many remixes on the disc, making it uneligable for UK chart entry.

The song was played to death on UK radio, particularly Radio 2. It had a lot of hit potential, it's a shame they botched up the release so poorly.

A lot of mistakes were made by the record company around this time. For once, I think Prince was justified in being pissed at his label. Prince played his part, he did a shit tonne of promo, TV appearances, press interviews... and Arista couldn't even give the lead single a proper commercial release in a timely manner.

I actually think Rave was a great comeback attempt and it was a real shame it went tits up. There's some stellar stuff on that record, songs like I Love U But I Don't Trust U Anymore, TGRES, Wherever U Go Whatever U Do, Strange But True... amongst some of the best stuff he did in the 90s.

Interesting, from what I remembered Alex hahn put the blame on P not Arista (but this book is an anti-Prince manifesto anyway). It's true that P did his share of promo with all the european TV shows and stuff. And these fuckers from No Doubts' label really killed a great single by preventing So Far, So Good to be released. Still, we still don't know what heppened exactly :s

I remember reading a cryptic post on Prince's website at the time about Gwen not wanting to shoot a video for it because she was unhappy about her voice being too low in the final mix of the song.

Too bad. The video for TGRES was gorgeous.

thedance said:

I believe I read,

Rave Un2 the album only sold 7,000 copies in the UK, in it's first week.

[Edited 9/20/13 11:35am]

I thought it was elligible because it had a competition involved or something included with it? There's no way a new Prince album would do that bad in the uk, especially seeing as even NPS a year before went to no.38

"Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic" sold half a million copies so somebody liked it!!

KCOOLMUZIQ said:

"Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic" sold half a million copies so somebody liked it!!

I did

KCOOLMUZIQ said:

"Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic" sold half a million copies so somebody liked it!!

I still like it