I picked the retail copy for £9.77 at Tesco today (Should get good sales there) and the sticker on the front does indeed say the album features the smashes Musicology and Call My Name.

Good song, but as second single? Could this be another case of Prince trashing album sales with bad single choices?

Come On P, you know the hits are A Million Days, Pimp Coma and Cinammon Girl!

What do you think?

Well judging by the sticker, it looks like it will be 'Call My Name'.

Then again, it also looks like they already know it will be a smash hit as 'was' its predecessor, 'Musicology' - despite it only being released to stores as a single next week.

You have to hand it to those promotion people he's got working on the job - they certainly have some great foresight.

I think it's a terrible choice for a single. Really pissing awful, and it annoys me.

I agree that Million Days is the obvious single (although i think ICP&C and If I was the man in your life would be more interesting).

There's a sticker on TGE that says 'includes Dolphin' alongside the songs that were actually released as singles. A likely single then but these things are NOT set in stone.

My top three for single release:

Million Days
Cinnamon Girl
Relfection

Marrk said:

I seem to remember that my album also has a sticker which refers to "The Continental". Which damn well should have been (but wasn't) a single in the UK...

My favourites on first listening are, A Million days, Cinnamon girl, and How do U want me to do? However, this is the first Prince album ever where I've not been blown away by at least one track as Exceptional, and in contrast don't actually think that any of the tracks are that bad that even on first plays made me want to skip them.

We as Prince fans will never really choose the most suitable songs for him to release as we always seem to favour those that are a bit too creative or compliacated for the masses to maybe appreciate or for the media to support and promote.

If you isolate the rest of the album and just listen to Call my name as a single, it dosn't seem as such a bad desision as when compared to listening to it along with the rest of the album.

You're all out of your minds

Call My Name will a be big R&B radio hit. I guarantee you. He should, however, release it as an A/B single like Outkast did with Hey Ya/ILTWYM, with one of the rockier songs to push for you folks.

But mark my words, with a sexy video, this song is gonna get more spins than Musicology.

I know Call My Name's a better single than Musicology, and I think the song's great. Still, I think Prince really needed to release a pop rock song for the second single.

I believe Prince has very little to do with picking the next single as the record company will dictate what will be released and what will be his next "smash." Remember it's money that determines whether a song will be a hit or not.

Actually think it's a smart albeit unimaginitive move to release Call My Name as the next single. Prince needs to rebuild his R& B fan base first, which I believe is the whole point of this entire Musicology concept. From there, after he has captured everyone's attention, look for him to come with the real deal melodic shit that we all grew accostomed to in the 80's.

IMO Musicology is but the first leg of a well thought out plan to reclaim his place in music history. So I say don't worry about what the next single is as the record company will ensure that it is a hit. Remember it's all about the payola more than anything else.

I believe Prince has very little to do with picking the next single as the record company will dictate what will be released and what will be his next "smash." Remember it's money that determines whether a song will be a hit or not.

Actually think it's a smart albeit unimaginitive move to release Call My Name as the next single. Prince needs to rebuild his R& B fan base first, which I believe is the whole point of this entire Musicology concept. From there, after he has captured everyone's attention, look for him to come with the real deal melodic shit that we all grew accostomed to in the 80's.

IMO Musicology is but the first leg of a well thought out plan to reclaim his place in music history. So I say don't worry about what the next single is as the record company will ensure that it is a hit. Remember it's all about the payola more than anything else.

I believe Prince has very little to do with picking the next single as the record company will dictate what will be released and what will be his next "smash." Remember it's money that determines whether a song will be a hit or not.

Actually think it's a smart albeit unimaginitive move to release Call My Name as the next single. Prince needs to rebuild his R& B fan base first, which I believe is the whole point of this entire Musicology concept. From there, after he has captured everyone's attention, look for him to come with the real deal melodic shit that we all grew accostomed to in the 80's.

IMO Musicology is but the first leg of a well thought out plan to reclaim his place in music history. So I say don't worry about what the next single is as the record company will ensure that it is a hit. Remember it's all about the payola more than anything else.

Nothing is ever a guaranteed hit.

What do i think? Bad move.

I would have pick "A million days" but if he/they want a slow song to be the next single i think "On the couch" has more cool-video potential.

A good tune, but not a real single. If i was the man in ur life is the best track on the album by the proverbial mile. He should release that instead imo.

Call My Name has a lot of AOR potential. It's for the same people who bought the new Norah Jones, so basically it can turn out to be a smart move. He's written better ballads, but this is just in overall the most mature sounding to me.

I think its a great choice for a single.

Bear in mind, the weather will be warmer by the time it'll be released. I think its a perfect Summer-night song.

If 'Cinammon Girl' is the third single, hopefully Sony will push a fourth single out and that single (if anybody has any sense) will be 'Illusion, Coma, Pimp And Circumstance'.

PurpleKnight said:

So the song's great? Maybe that's wha Prince chose this single. And not becuase it would sell the most.

if this is the next single it will give the masses the impression that musicology is an r&b cd. i really think he needs to release a pop hit. cinnamon girl or a million days...maybe even the marrying kind/if i was the man in your life...one of those tracks needs to be released. and there's no law that says call my name can't be released to urban while one of those others goes to top 40.

SassierBritches said:

This is what I keep saying. Why not release an R&B track AND a Pop/Top 40/Rock track simultaneously??? That formula worked well with Sign O' The Times album, where ICNTTPOYM and UGTL released on white, mainstream radio at the same time IIWYG and ADORE!! He should stick to that formula and not be afraid to release more than one single. The idea to release TMK/IIWTMIYL from the Musicology album would not be a bad choice, but he needs to release those two songs together because TMK is only 2:48 minutes long!

I think essentially that CMN hits the nail for black urban as well as adult contemporary audiences. A Million Days/Cinnamon Girl works well for mainstream audience. Why not release at the same time?

I'm listening to CMN at this moment. What an amazing song - if there ever was anything in his post-80s ouput that is definite Grammy-winning material this is it. Of course, my concept of what kind of stuff is winning the Grammies these days might be a bit outdated, but give this old hack a break.

Actually, this album contains a lot good potential single choices. But - for some reason - I've started to think "A Million Days" might not be afterall a good choice for a single at all. The production style wouldn't fit any radio format, it's too loose to fill such a function.

call my name has actually grown on me alot since i first heard it.

I agree, though: there should be 2 tracks released simultaneously - Call my Name for r/b radio and Cinnamon Girl for pop and Adult Top 40.

JonSnow said:

Everyone seems to have forgotten that only teenagers and young girls buy singles...
Call My Name is a ridiculous choice to release as a single in shops... but just to the radio would be great.
If P wants to sell single sit should be something more contemporary sounding like ICPC or even Life o the Party (god forbid!)
And for the contemp. R&B market, On The Couch would be amazing.

I totally agree with you guys who said that Cinnamon Girl should be simultaneously released as the pop single along with the R&B "Call my Name". With Prince you've got to get those singles out there before he loses interest in promoting the album and decides to move on to another project like he's done too many times before in the recent past. Fortunately, though, it looks like he's going to let this album have a little staying power. Let's hope for some cool videos and heavy promotion of Cinnamon Girl.

Someone in another thread last week said that the video for ICPC should be somewhat like Raspberry Beret (half animated). Great idea!!!!! I would love to see that. Given the lyrics, that would be one funny-ass video, and would definitely drive the single.

I think "Call My Name" is a great choice for the next single! Like it a lot.

i think its an awesome track... one of my favs. good r n b sells well... check miss keys and all. big market for that jond of tune. great album in my opinion... love the slow songs best > call my name, on the couch etc.

pimp and mr man are also killers!

lond live musicology!

YUP, he reffered to Call My Name this morning on KPWR here in L.A. I am pretty sure he is excited about this song--it would then make sense he is going for it. The reference was something like "Prince why do you still write music after all you've accomplished", Prince said, "When I wake up with the lyrics 'Just can't stop writin songs aboutcha, I love you so much' I can't help but sit down at the piano and write a melody to that."