Posting here instead of associates because I'm basically asking why Prince didn't take the time to fully promote these albums same way he did with Sheila ? He could have made a lot of money. No wonder he was frustrated when Sinead took "Nothing Compares to You" and capitalized off of it.

Bad business move on his end. He had some gems but ...

[Edited 11/12/25 13:52pm]

[Edited 11/12/25 13:52pm]

What a great question.

I'd guess and say that 1985 was not the right time to launch The Family.

In 1984, when Sheila E was launched - anything Prince-related was gold.
Plus The Glamorous Life was really, really good stuff - a perfect hit.

But then, the avalanche.
It seems cool today, but he was slaughtered by the public when he skipped We Are The World.
To the general public, he never came off as 'warm and fuzzy' to begin with, but after WATW - people thought he was a total asshole.

This, in my opinion, really turned the general public off to Prince.

He was a weird, spoiled brat.

There may have been some PR fatigue too.

Then ATWIAD comes out and it's cool, but another oddball move - for the general public.
And he was quickly falling out of favor.

By the time The Family came out, Pop Life peaked (i think), so the Family had nothing to ride the wave of (so to speak)

In fact, they caught a pretty negative wave.

Music was also changing - becoming more 'Rock' than pop/dance/rnb
It was the era of Mr Mister, Tears for Fears, Dire Straits, Phil Collins
Ronald Reagan just won the election by a landslide, AIDS was becoming known and things got really conservative, really fast.

It was a time for 'bro' music and Prince definiltey fell out of favor with those types by the middle of 1985.

Not the easiest time to be a Prince fan!

[Edited 11/11/25 20:56pm]

[Edited 11/11/25 20:56pm]

[Edited 11/11/25 20:57pm]

[Edited 11/11/25 20:57pm]

I would say that in spite of his best efforts neither record was good in a "commercial" way in their time. The male vocals on the Family record were about as subtle as that Nestle Sweet Dreams commercial.

I like both albums, but even when I listen to them by myself I feel a little embarrased by the over-the-top vocals. Very cheesy.

rockford said:

I would say that in spite of his best efforts neither record was good in a "commercial" way in their time. The male vocals on the Family record were about as subtle as that Nestle Sweet Dreams commercial.

I like both albums, but even when I listen to them by myself I feel a little embarrased by the over-the-top vocals. Very cheesy.

Definitely agree.

I bought the family album when it wast released, because I bought everything Prince related, but its really not that good of an album.

Some track are good, but the vocals are just bad. So bad its takes down the good songs.

Jill Jones is anolther story, cause I think everything about the album is good.

G spot was a little hit in holland, she was performing it live on dutch tv.

but besides that, zero promortion, I never knew there was a video for Mia bocca until much later.

Was there a video for G spot?

DotsofU said:

rockford said:

I would say that in spite of his best efforts neither record was good in a "commercial" way in their time. The male vocals on the Family record were about as subtle as that Nestle Sweet Dreams commercial.

I like both albums, but even when I listen to them by myself I feel a little embarrased by the over-the-top vocals. Very cheesy.

Definitely agree.

...and all this with an approval cheesy ear by Prince.

-

Why didn't he made 'another' bad business move, lik, if Prince released The Family album as a duet album between him and Susanah?

Releasing it under the name "Prince & The Family", that would've been a surprise (shock) for the (screaming PR) fans, somehow referring to Sly & The family Stone (and create a great confusion towards his own band).

He should've waited with the Family project and released it after Parade.

he could've used one or two songs of it in UTCM. The album's feel matches the vibes of Parade and UTCM much more imho.

On the other hand, Jill Jones' album should've been released earlier, somewher ein 1985. That sound matches the ATWIAD feel much more (to me).

And, for example, he should've taken both protegees with him on tour as openers.

Jill for the-never-happened-1985-ATWIAD-tour (even if it was only a short US tour only...), and Prince and The Family as openers for the Parade tour. St Paul could've taken all the 'duets' singing for his account for example...

I'm just dreaming too much here. I got carried away a little by the idea alone...

-

Vannormal said:

And, for example, he should've taken both protegees with him on tour as openers.

Jill Jones got to prepare and rehearse her opening set for the SOTT US-leg that never happened.

Vannormal said:

DotsofU said:

Definitely agree.

...and all this with an approval cheesy ear by Prince.

-

Why didn't he made 'another' bad business move, lik, if Prince released The Family album as a duet album between him and Susanah?

Releasing it under the name "Prince & The Family", that would've been a surprise (shock) for the (screaming PR) fans, somehow referring to Sly & The family Stone (and create a great confusion towards his own band).

He should've waited with the Family project and released it after Parade.

he could've used one or two songs of it in UTCM. The album's feel matches the vibes of Parade and UTCM much more imho.

On the other hand, Jill Jones' album should've been released earlier, somewher ein 1985. That sound matches the ATWIAD feel much more (to me).

And, for example, he should've taken both protegees with him on tour as openers.

Jill for the-never-happened-1985-ATWIAD-tour (even if it was only a short US tour only...), and Prince and The Family as openers for the Parade tour. St Paul could've taken all the 'duets' singing for his account for example...

I'm just dreaming too much here. I got carried away a little by the idea alone...

-

If we could go back in time.

DotsofU said:

But then, the avalanche.

It seems cool today, but he was slaughtered by the public when he skipped We Are The World.
To the general public, he never came off as 'warm and fuzzy' to begin with, but after WATW - people thought he was a total asshole.

[Edited 11/11/25 20:56pm]

[Edited 11/11/25 20:56pm]

[Edited 11/11/25 20:57pm]

[Edited 11/11/25 20:57pm]

That didn't help. The younger generation doesn't see him as likeable and these days, these things matter more than talent.

paisleyparkgirl said:

Posting here instead of associates because I'm basically asking why Prince didn't take the time to fully promote these albums same way he did with Sheila ? He could have made a lot of money. No wonder he was frustrated when Sinead took "Nothing Compares to You" and capitalized off of it.

Bad business move on his end. He had some gems but ...

[Edited 11/12/25 13:52pm]

[Edited 11/12/25 13:52pm]

I don't think Prince did much to promote Sheila E. save putting her as the opening act of the PR Tour. The rest was up to WB (and maybe Sheila's management if she had any).

According to Alan Leeds, Prince assumed WB was in charge of promoting Paisley Park records and WB assumed it was Prince's responsibility, so no one did much to promote those releases.

I think it was a little different with the 1982-1984 Starr Company projects, as they were directly on WB, so WB took care of promoting them. After 1985, no one took care of much. I think Romance 1600, Taja Sevelle and Pandemonium got a little push from WB, but that's about it.

I wonder who actually did arrange Jill's European TV promo tour in 87. WB Europe or someone did a little effort to promote the album there and Mia Bocca got some airplay at the time, which cannot be said of most PP singles.

Regarding The Family, I guess it didn't help that the band disbanded right after the record came out. Besides, I remain skeptical about the album's commercial appeal. It's a masterpiece, but it's rather experimental, a little too pop for black audiences and a little too funk for white audiences (in the US at least). It may have fared better in Europe if promoted (Paisley Park records apparently usually did).

Either way, Paisley Park Records will go down in History as a long series of missed opportunities. A pity IMHO, because I personally love most of the label's output, and with a little more effort at curating the artists and promting the records, it could have been a more significant part of Prince's legacy.

DotsofU said:

What a great question.

I'd guess and say that 1985 was not the right time to launch The Family.

In 1984, when Sheila E was launched - anything Prince-related was gold.
Plus The Glamorous Life was really, really good stuff - a perfect hit.

But then, the avalanche.
It seems cool today, but he was slaughtered by the public when he skipped We Are The World.
To the general public, he never came off as 'warm and fuzzy' to begin with, but after WATW - people thought he was a total asshole.

This, in my opinion, really turned the general public off to Prince.

He was a weird, spoiled brat.

There may have been some PR fatigue too.

Then ATWIAD comes out and it's cool, but another oddball move - for the general public.
And he was quickly falling out of favor.

By the time The Family came out, Pop Life peaked (i think), so the Family had nothing to ride the wave of (so to speak)

In fact, they caught a pretty negative wave.

Music was also changing - becoming more 'Rock' than pop/dance/rnb
It was the era of Mr Mister, Tears for Fears, Dire Straits, Phil Collins
Ronald Reagan just won the election by a landslide, AIDS was becoming known and things got really conservative, really fast.

It was a time for 'bro' music and Prince definiltey fell out of favor with those types by the middle of 1985.

Not the easiest time to be a Prince fan!

[Edited 11/11/25 20:56pm]

[Edited 11/11/25 20:56pm]

[Edited 11/11/25 20:57pm]

[Edited 11/11/25 20:57pm]

DotsofU said:

What a great question.

I'd guess and say that 1985 was not the right time to launch The Family.

In 1984, when Sheila E was launched - anything Prince-related was gold.
Plus The Glamorous Life was really, really good stuff - a perfect hit.

But then, the avalanche.
It seems cool today, but he was slaughtered by the public when he skipped We Are The World.
To the general public, he never came off as 'warm and fuzzy' to begin with, but after WATW - people thought he was a total asshole.

This, in my opinion, really turned the general public off to Prince.

He was a weird, spoiled brat.

There may have been some PR fatigue too.

Then ATWIAD comes out and it's cool, but another oddball move - for the general public.
And he was quickly falling out of favor.

By the time The Family came out, Pop Life peaked (i think), so the Family had nothing to ride the wave of (so to speak)

In fact, they caught a pretty negative wave.

Music was also changing - becoming more 'Rock' than pop/dance/rnb
It was the era of Mr Mister, Tears for Fears, Dire Straits, Phil Collins
Ronald Reagan just won the election by a landslide, AIDS was becoming known and things got really conservative, really fast.

It was a time for 'bro' music and Prince definiltey fell out of favor with those types by the middle of 1985.

Not the easiest time to be a Prince fan!

[Edited 11/11/25 20:56pm]

[Edited 11/11/25 20:56pm]

[Edited 11/11/25 20:57pm]

[Edited 11/11/25 20:57pm]

This entire list is revisionists history. None of it applied 2 real time.

Whether something became a hit in the 1980s (and in the decades before and after, until the era of digital music and especially streaming) was often just pure chance.

.

The BBC has a series about Top Of The Pops (their TV chart show) where each episode deals with one single year, and it has plenty of stories about how a stroke of luck made something into a hit. IIRC Dead Or Alive's "You Spin Me Round" had been bubbling just under the Top 40 (TOTP only featured songs that were rising in the Top 40 as well as the number 1), until one week when TOTP didn't have enough acts to fill the show and Dead Or Alive got that free spot. That performance exposed them to a large audience, and enough people liked the song and went out and bought the single, which then started their rise up the charts.

.

And there are many stories like that, where one DJ picking up a song and relentlessly playing it can produce a hit. Or a B-Side that gets airplay. Club hits that cross over to a general audience. Britons who went on holiday in Europe, heard a song that was big in the charts there, and on return went to their record shop to buy that record which meant a European Summer hit suddenly got a second life in September in the UK.

.

There are plenty of worthy songs that never got higher than the lower ranks of the Top 40, failing to break through. It doesn't help that many PPR acts were lacking in promo, for sure. But when Warners had to put in effort to promote Prince singles (which sometimes didn't have videos and which had no support from Prince himself through TV appearances), can you blame them for not investing a ton of money and effort into promoting records for associated acts? Especially when they often had other acts that could provide the "full promo experience" and that their A&R department had great hopes for?

The promo video for "Nasty Girl" is a performance by Vanity 6 on Dutch TV show TopPop because IIRC their European promo tour was cut short because they were recalled to the USA for the 1999 Tour and they didn't even have time to record a proper video. Things like that tend to be remembered by people in the business.

.

As for Jill Jones: yeah, there was some effort there. And yet ads in for instance Dutch magazines showed a bunch of Prince albums as well as albums by The Time and Sheila E, but not Jill Jones's album.

when St. Paul Peterson abruptly quit The Family,one of his major complaints was that Prince was spreading himself too thin and wasn't really focusing on the group.The same thing happened with Mazarati a short time later.In the case of Jill Jones,her album received very little promotion here in the States.I remember seeing her album at a record store and I had not even heard the first single! I didn't even know that her album was coming out.

databank said:

According to Alan Leeds, Prince assumed WB was in charge of promoting Paisley Park records and WB assumed it was Prince's responsibility, so no one did much to promote those releases.

I think it was a little different with the 1982-1984 Starr Company projects, as they were directly on WB, so WB took care of promoting them. After 1985, no one took care of much.

yeah,the early acts (The Time,Vanity 6) were properly promoted.Their songs were on the radio,especially The Time.They appeared on Soul Train and other music shows.It seems that,once Paisley Park Records became a reality in 1985,the artists on that label got less attention and airplay.Notice that many of those artists recorded one album and then seemingly disappeared.

DotsofU said:

What a great question.

I'd guess and say that 1985 was not the right time to launch The Family.

In 1984, when Sheila E was launched - anything Prince-related was gold.
Plus The Glamorous Life was really, really good stuff - a perfect hit.

But then, the avalanche.
It seems cool today, but he was slaughtered by the public when he skipped We Are The World.
To the general public, he never came off as 'warm and fuzzy' to begin with, but after WATW - people thought he was a total asshole.

This, in my opinion, really turned the general public off to Prince.

He was a weird, spoiled brat.

There may have been some PR fatigue too.

Then ATWIAD comes out and it's cool, but another oddball move - for the general public.
And he was quickly falling out of favor.

By the time The Family came out, Pop Life peaked (i think), so the Family had nothing to ride the wave of (so to speak)

In fact, they caught a pretty negative wave.

Music was also changing - becoming more 'Rock' than pop/dance/rnb
It was the era of Mr Mister, Tears for Fears, Dire Straits, Phil Collins
Ronald Reagan just won the election by a landslide, AIDS was becoming known and things got really conservative, really fast.

It was a time for 'bro' music and Prince definiltey fell out of favor with those types by the middle of 1985.

Not the easiest time to be a Prince fan!

[Edited 11/11/25 20:56pm]

[Edited 11/11/25 20:56pm]

[Edited 11/11/25 20:57pm]

[Edited 11/11/25 20:57pm]

all of the above, but also add into the mix the additional flack (aka as Cancel Culture these days) he got from being the catalyst and No.1 focal point of The Moral Majority and the PMRC (aka the Washington Wives) with their Filthy Fifteen (play)list of so-called objectionable songs.

Timing wise, The Family LP was launched August 19th 1985 and they went live with their list Sept 12th 1985, in the same issue of Rolling Stone magazine that had Prince on the cover: https://substack.com/home...-173446957

Gooddoctor23 said:

DotsofU said:

What a great question.

I'd guess and say that 1985 was not the right time to launch The Family.

In 1984, when Sheila E was launched - anything Prince-related was gold.
Plus The Glamorous Life was really, really good stuff - a perfect hit.

But then, the avalanche.
It seems cool today, but he was slaughtered by the public when he skipped We Are The World.
To the general public, he never came off as 'warm and fuzzy' to begin with, but after WATW - people thought he was a total asshole.

This, in my opinion, really turned the general public off to Prince.

He was a weird, spoiled brat.

There may have been some PR fatigue too.

Then ATWIAD comes out and it's cool, but another oddball move - for the general public.
And he was quickly falling out of favor.

By the time The Family came out, Pop Life peaked (i think), so the Family had nothing to ride the wave of (so to speak)

In fact, they caught a pretty negative wave.

Music was also changing - becoming more 'Rock' than pop/dance/rnb
It was the era of Mr Mister, Tears for Fears, Dire Straits, Phil Collins
Ronald Reagan just won the election by a landslide, AIDS was becoming known and things got really conservative, really fast.

It was a time for 'bro' music and Prince definiltey fell out of favor with those types by the middle of 1985.

Not the easiest time to be a Prince fan!

[Edited 11/11/25 20:56pm]

[Edited 11/11/25 20:56pm]

[Edited 11/11/25 20:57pm]

[Edited 11/11/25 20:57pm]

This entire list is revisionists history. None of it applied 2 real time.

clearly it did

"Mia boca" was quite popular in Italy

Well, the Family was disbanded and weren't available for PR appearances. Jill Jones' Mia Bocca video got a lot of play on Sky or MTV or wherever and she was probably only doing PR appearences in Europe because Prince had moved on to the next girl(s) back in America.

mattosgood said:

TheBigBang said:

mattosgood said:

clearly it did

No, it did not.

in what way?

As, I lived through all that, it's how it was, so...

scififilmnerd said:

mattosgood said:

TheBigBang said:

mattosgood said: No, it did not.

in what way?

As, I lived through all that, it's how it was, so...

I lived through it as well. There were no publications pontificating about anything like this at the time.


"But then, the avalanche.
It seems cool today, but he was slaughtered by the public when he skipped We Are The World.
To the general public, he never came off as 'warm and fuzzy' to begin with, but after WATW - people thought he was a total asshole."

No, they did not. And there was no media outlet saying this at the time. Only if this was someone's personal friend circle. He was still basking in the glow of Purple Rain. He was still the media darling, to the extent that he would allow the media to spotlight him. It's just silly talk to try and change the narrative 40 years later, as if there was anything like the wave of public disapproval that some celebrities get 24/7 because of social media.

If, and that's a strong IF, there were any magazines letting a writer do an OP-ED about Prince being as asshole because be didn't participate in WATW, it was at the indie press level. They weren't calling him that on ET; he wasn't being lambasted on late night talk shows.

"But then, the avalanche..."

Get out of here with that. It never happened.

[Edited 11/20/25 16:46pm]

[Edited 11/20/25 16:47pm]

[Edited 11/20/25 16:47pm]

mattosgood said:

TheBigBang said:

mattosgood said: No, it did not.

in what way?

As, I lived through all that, it's how it was, so...

Lol.....I was in a 1 horse college town is West Lafayette, In and knew about all this stuff the day it came out. Stop the madness.

I was 12 years old at that time and living in Austria, and wouldn't say that they were folps, but they helped gain Prince momentum as a mastermind behind lots of interesting productions.

It wasn't official knowledge at the time that P wrote all (or most of) the songs, and played all the instruments. We just knew that they were debut releases by as-yet-unknown bands and artists, which Prince lent a hand or two in the recording. Just look at the official liner notes from back then.

But the releases surely created a lot of buzz and added to the mystery surrounding Prince, which wasn't a really big star yet over here. Purple Rain was his first hit in Austria and probably in most of Europe, his first tour only came after the Parade album - and it was a big success. Surely helped by the good press and positive feedback The Family and Jill Jones gathered.

Nobody I know ever thought about if or why Prince was or wasn't Part of USA for Africa. That was Michaels and Lionel Richies record, which were a lot bigger then than Prince over here.

kindofblue said:

I was 12 years old at that time and living in Austria, and wouldn't say that they were folps, but they helped gain Prince momentum as a mastermind behind lots of interesting productions.

It wasn't official knowledge at the time that P wrote all (or most of) the songs, and played all the instruments. We just knew that they were debut releases by as-yet-unknown bands and artists, which Prince lent a hand or two in the recording. Just look at the official liner notes from back then.

But the releases surely created a lot of buzz and added to the mystery surrounding Prince, which wasn't a really big star yet over here. Purple Rain was his first hit in Austria and probably in most of Europe, his first tour only came after the Parade album - and it was a big success. Surely helped by the good press and positive feedback The Family and Jill Jones gathered.

Nobody I know ever thought about if or why Prince was or wasn't Part of USA for Africa. That was Michaels and Lionel Richies record, which were a lot bigger then than Prince over here.

I think absolutely NO ONE in Europe gave a shit about that so-called We Are The World "scandal", or even heard of it. In the UK maybe because of the tabloids, IDK? But I don't know that in France anyone knew, or cared about this.

Here, We Are The World was just a hit charity song: the AMA weren't aired on TV, so it's not like the media teased the audience about WATW's recording and all those stars gathering, etc.

It was mostly an American thing and if it hurt Prince's reputation, it was only in the US.

To this day, I'm still glad he didn't sing on WATW. It would have been so awkward to see him do this (and we wouldn't have had the hilarious lollipop sequence a decade later ).

I think fundamentally it was never a good recipe for success to just... take a bunch of Prince demos and swap out lead vocals. It just ends up sounding like what it is, a Prince outtake which is diminished due to not having Prince.

The JJ album is great, almost every song is a banger, and Jill definitely had chops vocally. However it ends up sounding super messy because Prince wasn't really writing for her voice, or her artist persona, so it really just smelling like an Prince project which is missing the main attraction. No amount of marketing push can save it, the vocals are all over the place.

The Family is almost a masterpiece, some of Prince's best work, but... as a record and a band there is no coherence. Maybe half the album sounds is sort of Time outtakes, but St Paul just isn't the right vocalist for that. He ends up trying to mimic the Prince/Morrisisms but it doesn't land. And the whole visual identity of the band feels like a mess, it's just so obviously a Prince project that would be better served with Prince on lead vocals. And it's not commercial at all, it's all a bit under-cooked despite NC2U later becoming a huge hit for Sinead.

Arguably, Prince never learned how to produce or write for other artists and have them sound like their own standalone thing. Better results were had when another producer took on the task of making a cover of a Prince track and running with it (e.g. Manic Monday, I Feel For You, Nothing Compres 2 U). If you look at Plectrum Electrum, it's often cringe in exactly the same way that St Paul on the Family was cringe, just the wrong person delivering lyrics that were obviously written by/for/from perspective of someone else.

databank said:

kindofblue said:

I was 12 years old at that time and living in Austria, and wouldn't say that they were folps, but they helped gain Prince momentum as a mastermind behind lots of interesting productions.

It wasn't official knowledge at the time that P wrote all (or most of) the songs, and played all the instruments. We just knew that they were debut releases by as-yet-unknown bands and artists, which Prince lent a hand or two in the recording. Just look at the official liner notes from back then.

But the releases surely created a lot of buzz and added to the mystery surrounding Prince, which wasn't a really big star yet over here. Purple Rain was his first hit in Austria and probably in most of Europe, his first tour only came after the Parade album - and it was a big success. Surely helped by the good press and positive feedback The Family and Jill Jones gathered.

Nobody I know ever thought about if or why Prince was or wasn't Part of USA for Africa. That was Michaels and Lionel Richies record, which were a lot bigger then than Prince over here.

I think absolutely NO ONE in Europe gave a shit about that so-called We Are The World "scandal", or even heard of it. In the UK maybe because of the tabloids, IDK? But I don't know that in France anyone knew, or cared about this.

Here, We Are The World was just a hit charity song: the AMA weren't aired on TV, so it's not like the media teased the audience about WATW's recording and all those stars gathering, etc.

It was mostly an American thing and if it hurt Prince's reputation, it was only in the US.

To this day, I'm still glad he didn't sing on WATW. It would have been so awkward to see him do this (and we wouldn't have had the hilarious lollipop sequence a decade later ).

Exactly.

Same in Belgian and Holland.

-

.. on the contrary, I wish he did sing on WATW.

Not really sing, but just that uneartly loud Princely scream.

Or some Aouwah's, with an not matching loud guitar solo.

Actually, we can make this all happen with AI...

Blasphemylicious.

[Edited 11/24/25 6:07am]

TheBigBang said:

mattosgood said:

in what way?

As, I lived through all that, it's how it was, so...

I lived through it as well. There were no publications pontificating about anything like this at the time.


"But then, the avalanche.
It seems cool today, but he was slaughtered by the public when he skipped We Are The World.
To the general public, he never came off as 'warm and fuzzy' to begin with, but after WATW - people thought he was a total asshole."

No, they did not. And there was no media outlet saying this at the time. Only if this was someone's personal friend circle. He was still basking in the glow of Purple Rain. He was still the media darling, to the extent that he would allow the media to spotlight him. It's just silly talk to try and change the narrative 40 years later, as if there was anything like the wave of public disapproval that some celebrities get 24/7 because of social media.

If, and that's a strong IF, there were any magazines letting a writer do an OP-ED about Prince being as asshole because be didn't participate in WATW, it was at the indie press level. They weren't calling him that on ET; he wasn't being lambasted on late night talk shows.

"But then, the avalanche..."

Get out of here with that. It never happened.

[Edited 11/20/25 16:46pm]

[Edited 11/20/25 16:47pm]

[Edited 11/20/25 16:47pm]

He was absolutely slaughtered by the Media, about not attending We Are The World, just one small and accessable example being 'I am the world' skit from SNL: https://www.instagram.com...YuW/?hl=en