"Sign ☮ The Times" was released! I was in Navy bootcamp when it was released and had no idea. But when we were released back into the wild, I saw the album on the shelf and flipped my lid. I ate it up.

I wasn't overly thrilled with the title track, but was drawn to "U Got The Look," "It's Gonna Be A Beautiful Night," "Housequake," "Forever In My Life" on the album.

So, let's hear stories about you finding out about the then-new single your very first thoughts. Was it a typical Prince song for you or it was just "meh?"

[Edited 2/18/21 17:19pm]

I liked the SOTT single when it came out, I heard it on the radio and bought the 7" in anticipation of the full album. I still think it is a great song. Perhaps not the most suitable song for Top 40, but certainly a good quality Prince song.

SOTT! My all-time favourite Prince album!

WOW

This one I went to the record store to get on my general album hunt.

I don't remember hearing/reading any announcements about it prior to.

It felt haunting and uncertain. And uncertain was how I felt about what was happening in the 'Prince' world. I don't mean that in a bad why actually. I believe right around the same time I got the Rolling Stone Mag where they first performed in Europe. Everything was still a big mysterious.

The song felt different, but at the time I wasn't able to play previous songs in connection with this one in a way to be able to hear if it felt like previous Prince sounds. In a way it did. Getting the single with La La La He He Hee as the B side and the single photography. I still remember bringing it home with my brothers and the short discussion of 'is this Prince?'

i was 14 when that came out.

There was a DJ radio show on the weekends in upstate NY and they played the full version before the 12" was released to the public.

i taped it from the show and thought i had something special, till i accidentally recorded over it a few days later.

-this is how we did back then! there was no downloading, just "grabbing" from the radio!!!-

.

So, to actually have bought this 12" single on the day of release was my cemented fandom.

(yeah, i thought it was Prince on the cover for a few seconds, too )

I loved the 12" B-side "LalalaHeeheehee" when it was broadcasted in german radio.

I sincerely wish I could, but I did not discover this properly until 1993.

.

I do remember hearing it on the radio around March/April 87 and thinking, thats a cool song - quite boppy. Except I was hardly putting 2 and 2 together then. I was still 10.

.

1993 however when I got the hits, I nearly s**t sideways (Well I did with most of those cuts, hearing them all together for the first time - especially Adore).

.

Feb 1995 - buying my first CD copy of SOTT and hearing extended version - above squared - pure ear sex.

.

Late 1995 finding the single 7 inch - cool

.

2010 - finding used 12 inch - ditto.

.

Oct 2020 - Deluxe SOTT version - again just wow.

.

It did not happen once but six times - rare for any song

I remember hearing the single on the local R&B station. Like "1999" and "W.D.C", it didn't sound like anything on the radio at that time. I was kind of blown away how bone dry and stark the song sounded....I also liked the bluesy guitar work he threw in there...There were rumors that he went back to playing everything by himself (like the old days)...Hearing that news, it definitely got me psyched to hear the whole album.

Remember the day well!

Hopped off the bus in front of the Record Store and bought the 45. Couple of weeks later bought the 12inch.

Remembered the song being very different from the Prince I was expecting.

Empress said:

SOTT! My all-time favourite Prince album!

We're talking about the single release, though.

It was funky and reminded me of the Fat Albert theme. La La La He He Hee was even mo' funky, how it just builds and builds to a feverish pitch and BOOM - release......

I became a fan when the album was the man's newest release, so shortly after that blew my 14-year-old mind, I started digging into Prince's back catalogue... I never really got into buying singles, by anyone, I've always been more interested in albums... I did, of course, buy the Hits/B-Sides album when it came out.... so that would probably have been my first real experience of Sign O' The Times the single...

I remember thinking it was okay when I first heard it.... wasn't until a few years later that it struck me how funky and sparse the song was. Now of course I consider it a masterpiece.

Probably the first time I ever heard the song was after Christmas 1992.... I was getting into Prince off the back of and was also showing interest in my dad's collection of vinyl, and in building my own... I remember going into a second hand record shop not far from where I lived, with my Dad, and being blown away because they had basically Prince's entire album catalogue on vinyl, pluse a couple of boots.... I could only afford one and didn't know where to start...

that Christmas, my Dad presents a big heavy box on Christmas Day.... he had gone back to the store later and bought every Prince record they had, for my Christmas Present.. most of the year was spent devouring it.... what a great present that was!

Rimshottbob said:

I became a fan when the album was the man's newest release, so shortly after that blew my 14-year-old mind, I started digging into Prince's back catalogue... I never really got into buying singles, by anyone, I've always been more interested in albums... I did, of course, buy the Hits/B-Sides album when it came out.... so that would probably have been my first real experience of Sign O' The Times the single...

I remember thinking it was okay when I first heard it.... wasn't until a few years later that it struck me how funky and sparse the song was. Now of course I consider it a masterpiece.

Probably the first time I ever heard the song was after Christmas 1992.... I was getting into Prince off the back of and was also showing interest in my dad's collection of vinyl, and in building my own... I remember going into a second hand record shop not far from where I lived, with my Dad, and being blown away because they had basically Prince's entire album catalogue on vinyl, pluse a couple of boots.... I could only afford one and didn't know where to start...

that Christmas, my Dad presents a big heavy box on Christmas Day.... he had gone back to the store later and bought every Prince record they had, for my Christmas Present.. most of the year was spent devouring it.... what a great present that was!

Cool story and I love the X-Mas gift you got from you dad!

-

When I bought the single, I saw this life sized cut-out display stand...

...the same one as on the single cover art, the one with Cat holding the Black heart.

It was that stand that was my first knowledge of the release of this brand new single.

I might've heard it on the radio, but this life sized stand really made my heart beat !

So when entered the local record shop, I asked them for it, and they said yes.

A couple of weeks later i was allowed to take it home... (when the next single was announced for a release).

So until now it still is in pristine quality safe placed behind my bedroom door.

And when you close my bedroom door, you're alone with Cat in front of you.

-

Never had a love for posters or t-shirts or other prince parafernalia.

I even did hide it for years under the bed.

But now it shines again, still in great quality.

-

Vannormal said:

-

When I bought the single, I saw this life sized cut-out display stand...

...the same one as on the single cover art, the one with Cat holding the Black heart.

It was that stand that was my first knowledge of the release of this brand new single.

I might've heard it on the radio, but this life sized stand really made my heart beat !

So when entered the local record shop, I asked them for it, and they said yes.

A couple of weeks later i was allowed to take it home... (when the next single was announced for a release).

So until now it still is in pristine quality safe placed behind my bedroom door.

And when you close my bedroom door, you're alone with Cat in front of you.

-

Never had a love for posters or t-shirts or other prince parafernalia.

I even did hide it for years under the bed.

But now it shines again, still in great quality.

-

Another cool story! I remember trying to get hold of one myself at my local record store but unfortunately I didn't get it...

I was like Holy Hell Two records!!

Make my wet..

PRNinPrint said:

I was like Holy Hell Two records!!

Make my wet..

Dude.

It was just a single with two songs.

Seal your pussy.

nayroo2002 said:

PRNinPrint said:

I was like Holy Hell Two records!!

Make my wet..

The single was one record, two songs.

TrivialPursuit said:

PRNinPrint said:

I was like Holy Hell Two records!!

Make my wet..

The single was one record, two songs.

Ooopps. I was thinking of the SOTT album, not the 12".