Rhino Rounds Up 'Ultimate' Prince

A week before Prince's new NPG Music Club/Universal album, "3121," hits stores on March 21, Rhino will unveil a two-disc collection of remastered hits and remixes. The 22-track "Ultimate" follows the 2001 release of the single-disc "The Very Best of Prince," which has sold 1.2 million copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

Beyond must-haves such as "I Wanna Be Your Lover," "I Would Die 4 U," "Controversy," "Sexy Mutha" and "Purple Rain," the album includes the NPG remix of "Cream," an acoustic version of "7," dance mixes of "Little Red Corvette," "Let's Go Crazy" and "Pop Life," an alternate mix of "Gett Off" and extended versions of "Kiss" and "Hot Thing."

As previously reported, Prince will perform as the musical guest Saturday (Feb. 4) on NBC's "Saturday Night Live." He will also join his newest musical protege, Tamar, for a show tonight at New York's Nokia Theatre. Tamar's debut, "Beautiful, Loved and Blessed" is expected to hit stores the same day as "3121."

Later this year, Tamar will serve as the opening act on Prince's world tour, dates for which have yet to be announced.

Here is the track list for "Ultimate":
Disc one:
"Purple Medley"
"I Wanna Be Your Lover"
"Uptown"
"Controversy"
"1999"
"Little Red Corvette" (dance mix)
"Let's Go Crazy" (dance mix)
"Erotic City" (12" version)
"Purple Rain"
"When Doves Cry"
"I Would Die 4 U"
"Pop Life" (Fresh dance mix)
"She's Always in My Hair" (12" version)
"Raspberry Beret" (12" version)

Disc two:
"Kiss" (extended version)
"Sign 'O' the Times"
"U Got the Look" (Long Look)
"I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man"
"Hot Thing" (extended remix)
"Alphabet St."
"Thieves in the Temple" (remix)
"Diamonds and Pearls"
"Gett Off"
"Money Don't Matter 2 Night"
"Cream" (NPG mix)
"7" (acoustic version)
"Sexy Mutha"
"Nothing Compares 2 U"
"My Name Is Prince"

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Tamar and Prince played in SF on Monday night, tickets were impossible to get, they played at the Fillmore

Was gonna go see Tamar at the Nokia, but then I realized i'm sick of the people P pimps. For every Jill Jones, there's a T.C. Ellis. Sorry, i'll wait for his next tour.

As for this "Ultimate" collection, i'll hold my breath where the "remastering" is concerned, but i'm glad to see the extended versions of Pop Life and She's Always In My Hair. Shame they didn't bite the bullet and release the other extended cuts/b-sides on CD instead of tracks like "Purple Medley" and "Sexy Mutha" . Clearly, THOSE are the "ultimate".

why another greatest hits collection. we need some remastered albums already, namely dirty mind and controversy!!

And Parade...

But that was only "the Hits". This is the "Ultimate" !!!11!!!!1!!!

Also, it's on Rhino, not NPG [or whatever label he's hitched his wagon to at the moment].

Well, even though I have all of these either on imported CD singles and/or album, I'll pick it up anyhow. I notice that there's just a wee bit too many songs from DIAMONDS AND PEARLS, and certainly not enough from PARADE and THE GOLD EXPERIENCE.

I just wish he would release his vault of unreleased albums (CRYSTAL BALL, REBIRTH OF THE FLESH) and hundreds of songs before he reaches retirement age.

Oh great, another "hit-n-run" tour, where the tickets are available for a nano-second and then no more.

I wish he'd just make up his mind to stay in the larger venues. Yes, it's thrilling to see him at a "small club, second show that night," but it gets tiresome having to sell body parts just to get inside.

The track list for "Ultimate" doesn't sound very "rare." Aside from the 12" of "She's Always in My Hair," which was never a favorite of mine, I think I already have all of these alt-takes.

This collection should have just been 12" versions only. Why add all those songs that are all over the place?

I own a bootleg collection of all Prince's 12" singles - gold pressed, in a kinda cool, custom "Symbol" box.

One more reason to hate the iPod and downloadable music. I want access to cool, unique Prince bootlegs again. Dammit.

I like the idea with the remixes, and this is probably a better balanced collection of mainstream hits than The Hits and more expansive than the single disc The Very Best of Prince. Still, like Very Best it all but ignores the pre-1999 era. I'm also shocked Delirious is left off again (it did appear on Hits). "Batdance" is snubbed once again, which is understandable but at the same time leaving off a number one song (and basically ignoring that album completely) makes these collections look slightly incomplete. It is good to see b-sides mingling with the other songs, though. I'm also happy to see "My Name is Prince" in there, but I'm probably the only one.

The major disappointment is that yet again this collection cuts off after the O+> album. While I understand Gold Experience and on weren't on Warner, there still should have been a way Rhino could have licensed a few of those songs. The bigger problem is that (IMO) after the O+> album, Prince seemed to pick some of the worst songs off the albums to release as singles. "Dinner with Delores"? "The Greatest Romance Ever Sold"? Even "I Hate U" was an odd pick considering some of the great potential singles on that album.

No "The most beautiful girl in the world" = NO SALE...

I really enjoy Prince, but it slays me that his protege has a name like Tamar. That is so Prince.

So you're saying Prince ripped off Jesse Johnson?

I definitely don't agree with that assessment. The Hits is the best and only good, comprehensive collection of Prince's mainstream, non-remix hits, spanning his entire career up to the release year of the set, 1993. Plus if you get the 3-disc set, you get a handsome chunk of his best B-sides, as you already know.

I don't think "Batdance" has been intentionally snubbed. With a song like that, there's most likely the matter of having to pay royalties to the actors whose vocal snippets are used predominantly throughout the song. I'm sure something like that can get pricey, and not worth the addition to the package.

Actually, The Gold Experience is on Warner.

Fixed.

And, Prince? Rip someone else off? Perish the thought.

I'm not sure what "editing" you're talking about, other than the fact that several of the songs aren't album-length.

I guess what I was trying to get at was that The Hits was filled with a lot of more "obscure" songs that appealed to fans and critics but were largely unknown to the general mainstream audience whose knowledge of Prince begins with either 1999 or Purple Rain. Adore? Four tracks from Dirty Mind? Now, I agree with this approach, love that it contains a lot of the early stuff, and love that it is (to that point) career-spanning (Batman soundtrack). And personally I prefer The Hits as a collection. But I still maintain Ultimate appears to be a better collection for the casual fan who wants all the big charting mainstream songs, especialy assuming those people wouldn't pick up the 3-disc version of The Hits and would miss out on Erotic City.

My bad there. I knew it was in his NPG Records phase but I forgot Warner actually released that one. And it also means there's really no excuse for omitting "Most Beautiful Girl in the World".

Actually, the inclusion of "Adore" wasn't too hard to understand. It was a big hit in the R&B market, and I still hear it on the radio at work all the time. You know the station: "The Quiet.....Storm" (cue thunder clap).

Actually, IIRC tMBGItW was released on Bellmark. Not WB.

Ding, Ding! Perhaps "butchered" would be a better word?

I guess we have different terms. When I think of "edited", I think of bad words being bleeped out, or large sections within a song being taken out (like Goo Goo Dolls 'Iris'). I don't consider a minute or two of length being taken off the end of a long song for radio play to be edited. I understand where you're coming from, though.

Don't expect full-length tracks on "Ultimate" it is Rhino's policy to use single versions whenever possible.

Pretty much an update of "The Hits" without the B-sides disc. Meh.

What really needs to be released is a proper Sign 'O' The Times DVD.