What are the top maxi singles that you would rate that Prince released?

You know, it'd be nice to hear what you think.

I'd say the best ones combined an extended version that went somewhere unexpected with an incredible B side. The first 3 that come to mind are...

Paisley Park with She's Always In My Hair

Mountains with Alexa de Paris

I Wish U Heaven with Scarlet Pussy

I still remember listening to each of those 6 sides of vinyl for the first time and wondering whether my head or my heart was going to explode first. It really was a physical thrill to pick up a Prince 12" back in the day.

Hey,

I was thinking more along the lines of the CD maxi singles.

I have Get Off Remix EP (Japanese version) and the Scandalous Sex Suite and was wondering if anyone could recommend the next one on my shopping list I'm thinking of going towards the New Power Generation maxi CD single.

Smillan said:

Hey,

I was thinking more along the lines of the CD maxi singles.

I have Get Off Remix EP (Japanese version) and the Scandalous Sex Suite and was wondering if anyone could recommend the next one on my shopping list I'm thinking of going towards the New Power Generation maxi CD single.

There's a Japanese version of the New Power Generation maxi that also has all of the Thieves In the Temple mixes on it so you kind of get two in one with that one. As far as the best one, my personal favourite you already have, Gett Off.

Gett Off

airth said:

You know, it'd be nice to hear what you think.

I'd say the best ones combined an extended version that went somewhere unexpected with an incredible B side. The first 3 that come to mind are...

Paisley Park with She's Always In My Hair

Mountains with Alexa de Paris

I Wish U Heaven with Scarlet Pussy

I still remember listening to each of those 6 sides of vinyl for the first time and wondering whether my head or my heart was going to explode first. It really was a physical thrill to pick up a Prince 12" back in the day.

The "Paisley Park" 12 inch is kinda RARE!!! I was able 2 find one here in Seattle 4 only $4!!!

1)Raspberry Beret w/She's Always In My Hair

2)When Doves Cry w/17 Days (wish the LONG Version of 17 Days was on it, tho')

3)Let's Pretend We're Married w/Irresistible Bitch

4)Scandalous Sex Suite

5)Kiss w/Love Or $

6)Little Red Corvette (Dance Mix)

7)Mountains w/Alexa de Paris

8)Sexy Dancer (SUPER ULTRA RARE 12")

9)Pop Life w/Hello

10)The Most Beautiful Girl In The World

[Edited 10/23/20 13:48pm]

The "Cream" one is like a mini-album, I love it. NPG is pretty great, too. Space, The Good Life are excellent. "My Name is Prince" was just remixes, kinda boring. "Scandalous Sex Suite" was cool, too. Miss those days.

nobody mentions Partyman...??

Since you seem to be more interested in 90s CDs rather than the classic 80s 12"s, I´d say go for the I Hate U maxi single and the Space maxi single. Those are my personal favorites from the 90s.

The Come On maxi single is relatively rare these days and regarded by some as the last really interesting maxi single with different versions of the same song, so you might want to check that one out, too. I liked the extended version of Come On.

Thieves in the temple - the long version is epic. And I also like the other remixes

Gett Off - just awesome, every single mix is great, and then there is Violet the Organ Grinder.

Around the World In A Day singles had the best b sides, Parade had the best 12 inch versions. (with both of them a close second in the other category and Purple Rain had one good 12 inch, the Let's Go Crazy one, with Erotic City as the b side, it is one of Prince's all time greatest 12 inches)

.

Other than singles from those two albums, both let's work (Controversy) and little red corvette (1999) have great long versions (and I'd put the Vanity 6 12 inch of Drive Me Wild in that same category of long versions, Sexy Dancer (Prince) is the original take on long versions like this, but slightly less interesting) and later in time, you get great 12 inches like I Wish You Heaven and Scandalous. On Scandalous you have the first example of Prince basically making a completely different song, which he'd repeat with things like Violet The Organ Grinder on Get Off and the Universal Love remix of Space. (both are also great)

.

Once you get to Sign Of The Times, Prince started adding remixes by others to the 12 inches (other than the one failed attempt at letting Sheila E remix Pop Life, go for the UK 9 minute 12 inch) and I never liked those (see also the Shep Pettibone horror on SOTT SDE), so after that, it gets quite patchy and you can't just blindly get anything and expect a pleasurable experience. Sometimes it is still good (there's some great I Hate You versions, for instance), but more often than not it doesn't really add anything to the song anymore. It seems later on (21st century) Prince lost interest in the extended version format, as well as the b-side, but he then released many one-offs that never landed on albums and there's some fun stuff there too. (the war, FUNK, one song, etc.)

.

If you are just starting on the Prince tracks that were officially released, but not on the albums, you'll have some great exploring to do and will undoubtedly grow in your appreciation for Prince. Have fun!

mediumdry said:

Around the World In A Day singles had the best b sides, Parade had the best 12 inch versions. (with both of them a close second in the other category and Purple Rain had one good 12 inch, the Let's Go Crazy one, with Erotic City as the b side, it is one of Prince's all time greatest 12 inches)

.

Other than singles from those two albums, both let's work (Controversy) and little red corvette (1999) have great long versions (and I'd put the Vanity 6 12 inch of Drive Me Wild in that same category of long versions, Sexy Dancer (Prince) is the original take on long versions like this, but slightly less interesting) and later in time, you get great 12 inches like I Wish You Heaven and Scandalous. On Scandalous you have the first example of Prince basically making a completely different song, which he'd repeat with things like Violet The Organ Grinder on Get Off and the Universal Love remix of Space. (both are also great)

.

Once you get to Sign Of The Times, Prince started adding remixes by others to the 12 inches (other than the one failed attempt at letting Sheila E remix Pop Life, go for the UK 9 minute 12 inch) and I never liked those (see also the Shep Pettibone horror on SOTT SDE), so after that, it gets quite patchy and you can't just blindly get anything and expect a pleasurable experience. Sometimes it is still good (there's some great I Hate You versions, for instance), but more often than not it doesn't really add anything to the song anymore. It seems later on (21st century) Prince lost interest in the extended version format, as well as the b-side, but he then released many one-offs that never landed on albums and there's some fun stuff there too. (the war, FUNK, one song, etc.)

.

If you are just starting on the Prince tracks that were officially released, but not on the albums, you'll have some great exploring to do and will undoubtedly grow in your appreciation for Prince. Have fun!

I agree with much of what you've written. I particularly agree with your opinion the the UK extended version of Pop Life is much, much better than Sheila's Fresh Dance Mix. I was very disappointed when that crap version was put on Ultimate.

Smillan said:

Hey,

I was thinking more along the lines of the CD maxi singles.

I have Get Off Remix EP (Japanese version) and the Scandalous Sex Suite and was wondering if anyone could recommend the next one on my shopping list I'm thinking of going towards the New Power Generation maxi CD single.

I think the NPG maxi is great, but sounds pretty dated.

But i know when i bought it, it was almost like buying an album.

ForbiddenFruit said:

nobody mentions Partyman...??

You really think the maxi is good?

I love the extended version, but the purple party mix?

nextedition said:

ForbiddenFruit said:

nobody mentions Partyman...??

You really think the maxi is good?

I love the extended version, but the purple party mix?

Video Mix (with the famous introduction of Candy Dulfer) and B-Side Feel U Up (Long Stroke) - great combo.

I loved the Maxis with Extended Versions and great B-Sides like Raspberry Beret, Kiss, Mountains, Let's Go Crazy or Partyman.

Best one is Gett Off.

The first single on cd was "If I Was Your Girlfriend"

(...the 12" has the -(Extended Version)- moniker, but was unfortunately a misprint ... )

The first Maxi on cd was "Alphabet St."

"Album Version" b/w "This Is Not Music, This Is A Trip"

(...the promo "Maxi" had the edit, album version, the "trip", & -(Extended Version)-, but the last one was also a misprint [t'was the album version] ...)

All the way out of the classic 12" singles, the coolest CD Maxi was "The Future" b/w "Electric Chair".

IMHO

Gotta go with Gett Off because you get Violet The Organ Grinder and Ganster Glam. Violet is SICK!!

New Power Generation, Gett Off, Cream, and the Beautiful Experience are really the only ones that feel planned to me. The rest just sound like various remixes thrown together across various releases.

edit: oh and maybe The Good Life.

[Edited 10/27/20 9:06am]

jaawwnn said:

New Power Generation, Gett Off, Cream, and the Beautiful Experience are really the only ones that feel planned to me. The rest just sound like various remixes thrown together across various releases.

edit: oh and maybe The Good Life.

[Edited 10/27/20 9:06am]

Really ? I think I Hate U, Come On and especially Space sound just as cohesive as the ones you mentioned above.

He put drastically different versions on those maxi singles, used slightly different or additional lyrics, followed a certan mood or themes and so on, not any different, in my opinion, than the Beautiful Experience or Gett Off.

KoolEaze said:

jaawwnn said:

New Power Generation, Gett Off, Cream, and the Beautiful Experience are really the only ones that feel planned to me. The rest just sound like various remixes thrown together across various releases.

edit: oh and maybe The Good Life.

[Edited 10/27/20 9:06am]

Really ? I think I Hate U, Come On and especially Space sound just as cohesive as the ones you mentioned above.

He put drastically different versions on those maxi singles, used slightly different or additional lyrics, followed a certan mood or themes and so on, not any different, in my opinion, than the Beautiful Experience or Gett Off.

Oh I forgot Come on! I don't have that one, i've actually never heard it.

I love the Space single and a lot of the remixes but even though he basically rewrote the song for release I don't see any cohesion to the maxi-single, no more than, say, the 7 CD single, same with Eye Hate You. I could of course be very wrong.

lurker316 said:

mediumdry said:

Around the World In A Day singles had the best b sides, Parade had the best 12 inch versions. (with both of them a close second in the other category and Purple Rain had one good 12 inch, the Let's Go Crazy one, with Erotic City as the b side, it is one of Prince's all time greatest 12 inches)

.

Other than singles from those two albums, both let's work (Controversy) and little red corvette (1999) have great long versions (and I'd put the Vanity 6 12 inch of Drive Me Wild in that same category of long versions, Sexy Dancer (Prince) is the original take on long versions like this, but slightly less interesting) and later in time, you get great 12 inches like I Wish You Heaven and Scandalous. On Scandalous you have the first example of Prince basically making a completely different song, which he'd repeat with things like Violet The Organ Grinder on Get Off and the Universal Love remix of Space. (both are also great)

.

Once you get to Sign Of The Times, Prince started adding remixes by others to the 12 inches (other than the one failed attempt at letting Sheila E remix Pop Life, go for the UK 9 minute 12 inch) and I never liked those (see also the Shep Pettibone horror on SOTT SDE), so after that, it gets quite patchy and you can't just blindly get anything and expect a pleasurable experience. Sometimes it is still good (there's some great I Hate You versions, for instance), but more often than not it doesn't really add anything to the song anymore. It seems later on (21st century) Prince lost interest in the extended version format, as well as the b-side, but he then released many one-offs that never landed on albums and there's some fun stuff there too. (the war, FUNK, one song, etc.)

.

If you are just starting on the Prince tracks that were officially released, but not on the albums, you'll have some great exploring to do and will undoubtedly grow in your appreciation for Prince. Have fun!

I agree with much of what you've written. I particularly agree with your opinion the the UK extended version of Pop Life is much, much better than Sheila's Fresh Dance Mix. I was very disappointed when that crap version was put on Ultimate.

This is the best version of that great song.

lurker316 said:

the UK extended version of Pop Life is much, much better than Sheila's Fresh Dance Mix.

I love how this particular "Extended Version" is the ACTUAL song as Prince recorded it, and the album version is "just" an edit.

The entire song works well for me, in fact; I love it. But the album version is an amazing edit.

New Power Generation, Cream and Gett Off really seemed like EPs, since some of the songs (even though they used the main song as a jumping-off point) were unique in their own right.

Also, Universal Love is amazing . . . I don't even consider it a remix.

Se7en said:

New Power Generation, Cream and Gett Off really seemed like EPs, since some of the songs (even though they used the main song as a jumping-off point) were unique in their own right.

Also, Universal Love is amazing . . . I don't even consider it a remix.

"New Power Generation" + "Glam Slam '91" = "Gett Off"

"Cream" remixes yielded "MNIP"

IMHO