I think the first one released as a single was Alphabet St but some of the earlier songs were put out on CD later on. I have the 3inch Alphabet St with the album version and this is not music...

I do not think any singles were released on CD before 1985



this is a decent resource: it has the singles and starting with Alphabet St it says if it had a cd single

https://en.wikipedia.org/...iscography

[Edited 2/24/17 16:04pm]

LonelyStarfish said:

I'm currently filling the gaps in my singles collection & was wondering if anyone knows what the first and last singles released on CD were and what's considered the rarest cd single? I'd rather ask the community before i scroll through discogs for hours lol

Was Guitar the last single released as a physical cd? On wiki it says it was released but I don't ever recall seeing it. Definitely seen Fury.

I would think that one of the rarest singles he only had for sale at some of the hit n run shows in 2001 - Supercute and Underneath the Cream. Not seen it - hate to think how much that would be going for if you could find a genuine copy.

I remember the 3" single of "Alphabet St". I think I owned it. I would tend to agree that it was probably the first CD single properly. Discogs mentions it being the first in his discography to have a CD release. Singles from SOTT did not.

"Chelsea Rodgers" had a CD single promo release, as did "Dance 4 Me" (2009), and "Breakfast Can Wait". Mind you, those were promos. "Guitar" could be the last consumer release, though.

There were Germany singles released later on that he fought the existence of (yet collected his royalty check regardless).

I saw pics of a 2013 Screwdriver single by Kobalt but it may have been a promo. I'm pretty sure R&R Love Affair and the 2nite remixes single, both from late 2012, were released on CD by Purple Music but I may be trippin'. The last Prince physical release I ever purchased was 3121 in 2006 so I kinda lost tracks after that ^^

databank said:

I'm pretty sure R&R Love Affair and the 2nite remixes single, both from late 2012, were released on CD by Purple Music but I may be trippin'.

No, you're not trippin'.

I've got them 2 (and also "Dance 4 Me), I can confirm.

If we can consider it technically a "single" and not an album (even if short), I would add to the "rarest" list the CD release of "The War".

BoraBora said:

If we can consider it technically a "single" and not an album (even if short), I would add to the "rarest" list the CD release of "The War".

Prince alternatively refered to it as both an album and a single so I guess it can be whatever we want it to be. I personally consider it an album, given that it's long enough and a whole artistic statement in itself.

TrivialPursuit said:

I remember the 3" single of "Alphabet St". I think I owned it. I would tend to agree that it was probably the first CD single properly. Discogs mentions it being the first in his discography to have a CD release. Singles from SOTT did not.

"Chelsea Rodgers" had a CD single promo release, as did "Dance 4 Me" (2009), and "Breakfast Can Wait". Mind you, those were promos. "Guitar" could be the last consumer release, though.

There were Germany singles released later on that he fought the existence of (yet collected his royalty check regardless).

As far as I know, "Breakfast Can Wait" didn't receive an official CD release.

I'm not sure a legit promo CDR exist, to me they looked all as bootleg (even the one on Discogs indicated as "NPGRecords", to be honest).

databank said:

BoraBora said:

If we can consider it technically a "single" and not an album (even if short), I would add to the "rarest" list the CD release of "The War".

Prince alternatively refered to it as both an album and a single so I guess it can be whatever we want it to be. I personally consider it an album, given that it's long enough and a whole artistic statement in itself.

Me also.

BoraBora said:

mynameisnotsusan said:

BoraBora said:

If we can consider it technically a "single" and not an album (even if short), I would add to the "rarest" list the CD release of "The War".

That was available on the his site for awhile though - even though I didn't buy it I could have. The Hit n Run singles were never made available outside attendees of those shows.

That's true, but a lot of P fans themselves seems to even not knowing that an official "The War" CD really exist (it was released in an higher number on cassette).

Anyway, as said above, "The War" is probably more of an album than a single, so no competition.

On a side note, I think that the rarest P's CDSingle is probably the 1995 "Pussy Control/319" promo (real limited pressing).

And talkin' of album, I would say "The Undertaker" deleted promo CD.

But correct me if I'm wrong, I could be.

mynameisnotsusan said:

Was Guitar the last single released as a physical cd? On wiki it says it was released but I don't ever recall seeing it.

Yep < i have some here

Why do people use wiki when there is http://www.princevault.co...=Main_Page It's not like it's never mentioned.

BoraBora said:

As far as I know, "Breakfast Can Wait" didn't receive an official CD release.

I'm not sure a legit promo CDR exist, to me they looked all as bootleg (even the one on Discogs indicated as "NPGRecords", to be honest).

Yeah it's an odd call, but it does say it was licensed to someone for release. It's probably still safe to say "Guitar" was the last one that was legit official across the board. You'd think "Dance 4 Me" would've had a release with all the hype & the commercial about the remixes.