Who was the engineer on this? Have they spoken about it?

Is it known if Prince re-recorded entire songs? Or just portions he intended to use for the medley?

This was still some time before he "threatened" to re-record everything ala 1999 TNM. I still wonder if he actually did it...

If he did, while I certainly wouldn't want it to replace the originals. I'd be interested to hear the new/alternate takes on 60-odd percent of his catalog.

Ndorphinmachina said:

Who was the engineer on this? Have they spoken about it?

Is it known if Prince re-recorded entire songs? Or just portions he intended to use for the medley?

This was still some time before he "threatened" to re-record everything ala 1999 TNM. I still wonder if he actually did it...

If he did, while I certainly wouldn't want it to replace the originals. I'd be interested to hear the new/alternate takes on 60-odd percent of his catalog.

.
I think it's pretty safe to say it's not a composite of different recordings, but one tape, recorded as it is (with a bunch of punch-ins).

[Edited 1/20/26 12:04pm]

"Engineered, Mixed and Edited by Ray Hahnfeldt and Steve Durkee"

I would love to know how much he did re-record

I don't believe a thing that he re-recorded (parts or all) of his (then) back catalog.

Wasn't all this just a big frustration outlet?

-

So, if you create a song, and you want to rerecord it to escape the contract you have with a record company... Are you not like sampling yourself?

But i'm not an expert in this.

Just sound silly for him to 'go back', and spend so much time to put up a middle finger to WB.

I've always thought of this as a bit frustration for Prince. 1996 he said he was free, Emancipation. But still he had to wait.

And, by the way, he announced so much things, he didn't do.

Up until his more silent years (or religious years, whatever) starting from 2001, he was recording all the time, trying to keep up with fashions and reinventing himself (Rave...).

This relesed Purple Medley sounds to me like something he would give to his band mates, to hrehearse for live shows. Or just play before a concert. Things he used to do.

Just my opinion.

Kares said:

Germanegro said:

Nah--he probably did not go through with re-recording many more of his older WB-contracted songs. He probably had too much new ideas percolating to spend too much time on such a product and it was likely became a no-starter after he assembled his sampling of self-samples that you can review on the "Rave" concert dvd. The re-recording of songs would not be sampling, btw--more like an act's re-issue of an old title.

>

I wouldn't call Prince trying to "reinvent himself"--too funny, like he ever needed to deliberately do that in order to sell his act! He was always going to be kinda' unique! Unless you're talking about his natural evolvement of character that most of us go through anyway if we're moving forward in our lives, so ain't no thing about that.

>

One of the things that I found cool about Prince's live act is where he would arrange his music in a medley format and also when he'd blend the songs, keeping the show transitions moving smoothly in a clever way without all the stopping and starting and introducing songs like so many others' stage presentation. That seemed like a natural thing for Prince to do and doesn't surprise me that he'd record some of those for a new presentation on some new release. The Purple Medley was probably one of those type of recordings along with some samples punched in.

Vannormal said:

I don't believe a thing that he re-recorded (parts or all) of his (then) back catalog.

Wasn't all this just a big frustration outlet?

-

So, if you create a song, and you want to rerecord it to escape the contract you have with a record company... Are you not like sampling yourself?

But i'm not an expert in this.

Just sound silly for him to 'go back', and spend so much time to put up a middle finger to WB.

I've always thought of this as a bit frustration for Prince. 1996 he said he was free, Emancipation. But still he had to wait.

And, by the way, he announced so much things, he didn't do.

Up until his more silent years (or religious years, whatever) starting from 2001, he was recording all the time, trying to keep up with fashions and reinventing himself (Rave...).

This relesed Purple Medley sounds to me like something he would give to his band mates, to hrehearse for live shows. Or just play before a concert. Things he used to do.

Just my opinion.

Vannormal said:

Another great example of this type of recording by Prince is the CD Single of "Damn U" from the album.

>

There, he presents the tune "2 Whom It May Concern" which is basically a promo for the album that overlays samples of each album song over an original rhythm track and instrumental licks with unique lyrical content.

>

It's actually one of my favorite Prince cuts!

Ndorphinmachina said:

Kares said:

.
I think it's pretty safe to say it's not a composite of different recordings, but one tape, recorded as it is (with a bunch of punch-ins).

[Edited 1/20/26 12:04pm]

So not a "megamix" but a song unto itself? Interesting. That idea never even crossed my mind.

.
That's what I always took it to be. He just played/recorded a medley, not separate, full songs that were later cut up and edited together.
.
I mean there could be a couple of bits of original recordings in there, like the opening Batdance – that's definitely from the original album. But the rest (as much as I remember) sounds the same, it has the same snare and other instrumentation, and most importantly, it has some transitional parts that are not part of the original songs.

Germanegro said:

Another great example of this type of recording by Prince is the CD Single of "Damn U" from the album.

>

There, he presents the tune "2 Whom It May Concern" which is basically a promo for the album that overlays samples of each album song over an original rhythm track and instrumental licks with unique lyrical content.

>

It's actually one of my favorite Prince cuts!

Those are actual samples from the original recordings.
The Purple Medley is a new recording of P playing a medley. So not exactly the same.

Vannormal said:

I don't believe a thing that he re-recorded (parts or all) of his (then) back catalog.

Wasn't all this just a big frustration outlet?

-

So, if you create a song, and you want to rerecord it to escape the contract you have with a record company... Are you not like sampling yourself?

But i'm not an expert in this.

Just sound silly for him to 'go back', and spend so much time to put up a middle finger to WB.

I've always thought of this as a bit frustration for Prince. 1996 he said he was free, Emancipation. But still he had to wait.

And, by the way, he announced so much things, he didn't do.

Up until his more silent years (or religious years, whatever) starting from 2001, he was recording all the time, trying to keep up with fashions and reinventing himself (Rave...).

This relesed Purple Medley sounds to me like something he would give to his band mates, to hrehearse for live shows. Or just play before a concert. Things he used to do.

Just my opinion.

Taylor Swift has done it with her entire catalogue, so it is doable.

.

I recall him claiming that actually he only needed to change one part of a song for it to be considered a new master. So just a synth line or something. 1999 - The New Master used elements from the original.

leecaldon said:

Vannormal said:

I don't believe a thing that he re-recorded (parts or all) of his (then) back catalog.

Wasn't all this just a big frustration outlet?

-

So, if you create a song, and you want to rerecord it to escape the contract you have with a record company... Are you not like sampling yourself?

But i'm not an expert in this.

Just sound silly for him to 'go back', and spend so much time to put up a middle finger to WB.

I've always thought of this as a bit frustration for Prince. 1996 he said he was free, Emancipation. But still he had to wait.

And, by the way, he announced so much things, he didn't do.

Up until his more silent years (or religious years, whatever) starting from 2001, he was recording all the time, trying to keep up with fashions and reinventing himself (Rave...).

This relesed Purple Medley sounds to me like something he would give to his band mates, to hrehearse for live shows. Or just play before a concert. Things he used to do.

Just my opinion.

Taylor Swift has done it with her entire catalogue, so it is doable.

.

I recall him claiming that actually he only needed to change one part of a song for it to be considered a new master. So just a synth line or something. 1999 - The New Master used elements from the original.

.
You're not seriously trying to compare Prince's catalog (either in volume or variety) to Swift's, are you?

Ndorphinmachina said:

Kares said:

.
I think it's pretty safe to say it's not a composite of different recordings, but one tape, recorded as it is (with a bunch of punch-ins).

[Edited 1/20/26 12:04pm]

So not a "megamix" but a song unto itself? Interesting. That idea never even crossed my mind.

'Megamix' applies to Kirky J's B Sides as we know that was a mix from complete tracks he made (with original vocals).

.

Whereas The Purple Medley sounds like a medley of newly recorded bits and vocals mixed together. Always thought it was cool the way he mashed likes of Peach music with Cream lyrics and Sexy MF music with Irresistable Bitch lyrics

Kares said:

Ndorphinmachina said:

Kares said: So not a "megamix" but a song unto itself? Interesting. That idea never even crossed my mind.

.
That's what I always took it to be. He just played/recorded a medley, not separate, full songs that were later cut up and edited together.
.
I mean there could be a couple of bits of original recordings in there, like the opening Batdance – that's definitely from the original album. But the rest (as much as I remember) sounds the same, it has the same snare and other instrumentation, and most importantly, it has some transitional parts that are not part of the original songs.

It never crossed my mind that he could have recorded all the Purple Medley songs in their entirety, it clearly sounds like something he recorded in a take, instrument after instrument as he used to, bar a few samples from the original songs.

.

As for the question about sampling and rerecording, the point of rerecording is precisely to own the masters, it has nothing to do with sampling which demands a licence (which didn't stop Prince from occasionally sampling some WB era songs on post-WB recordings, but he knew they just wouldn't bother going to court about it, and they didn't).

.

Regarding his project to rerecord everything, the only solid information we have about him rerecording anything is obviously 1999, which he released, and HM Buff mentioning an attempt at a drum'n'bass version of Let's Pretend We're Married IIRC. Outside of those two, I'm not aware of any evidence he rerecorded anything else and if he did, it probably wasn't much.

Speaking of samples, were the samples CD's ever released?

I remember around 1999, announcements were made about the release of individual samples (isolated tracks sounds) for musicians.

BonnieC said:

Speaking of samples, were the samples CD's ever released?

I remember around 1999, announcements were made about the release of individual samples (isolated tracks sounds) for musicians.

Nope, but some of it leaked soonafter IIRC.

databank said:

BonnieC said:

Speaking of samples, were the samples CD's ever released?

I remember around 1999, announcements were made about the release of individual samples (isolated tracks sounds) for musicians.

Nope, but some of it leaked soonafter IIRC.

.
AFAIK those leaked samples came from someone's synthesizer.

Kares said:

databank said:

Nope, but some of it leaked soonafter IIRC.

.
AFAIK those leaked samples came from someone's synthesizer.

Those are on the the Metropolis bootleg that has Hayes's/Barbarella's samples from there synths.
Teh 7 CD set was said to be sold only to some artists in the Industry after Prince canceled it because WB wouldn't allow it or they couldn't get a agreement.
Puff Daddy and Dr.Dre were rumpored to have paid Prince for the set but no idea if this is true because it seems they have ever used anything from those sets in there releases.