Prince - Ultimate (deleted 2-disc set)

I just received my copy of Ultimate, and I'm very glad I made the purchase. As Pat notes on his "reviews" section of the site, the CD was quickly pulled from store shelves, so it can only be found used at this point. I heard it was because of licensing disagreements between Prince and Warner Bros., but I don't know the official story.

What makes this a real treasure, IMO, is all of the 12" mixes included on disc 2. Being a huge fan of Prince, I have collected darn near every 12" single he has put out from the beginning through the early 90s. At one point, I spent much time transferring these rare mixes from vinyl to CD, and alas, I have some of them now from the master tapes!

Here's a quick review of disc 2:

Let's Go Crazy (Special Dance Mix) - one of the best 12" mixes from Prince; only previously available on a 3" import CD single.

Little Red Corvette (Dance Remix) - originally only available as a promo 12" single, it was at some point released on a rare import 3" CD single; the sound quality on this release is far superior to the 3" CD.

Let's Work (Dance Remix) - at one time, this was one of the most rare (and expensive) 12" singles to obtain; to my knowledge, this is the first time it has ever appeared on CD.

Pop Life (Fresh Dance Mix) - there were two extended mixes for this track, and this is the one released on 12" in the US; sounds fantastic on CD, although the "extended version" on the UK 12" is a better extended mix than this one remixed by Shiela E.

She's Always In My Hair (12" Version) - one of Prince's best b-sides, next to "Erotic City" and "17 Days," and has spectacular sound quality on this release.

Raspberry Beret (12" Version) - this is the most disappointing track in the sound quality department; for some reason, it's the only one that sounds flat & dull, although still a tape source; the good thing is that it has never been on cd prior to this release! I enhanced the EQ, boosting the high end a bit, and it sounds much better...

Kiss (Extended Version) - previously available on the not-so-hard-to-find import CD single

U Got The Look (Long Look) - to my knowledge, this is the first appearance on CD of this extended version, and sounds excellent compared to my vinyl copy!

Hot Thing (Extended Remix) - another one making its way to CD for the first time

Theives In The Temple (Remix) - I was disappointed that they included this one, since the CD single is easy-to-find and pretty cheap. I believe I paid less than $3.00 for it used. There are several other rare 12" mixes I would've liked to see in its place.

Cream (NPG Mix) - another one that could've been eliminated to leave room for something more rare, as the CD single is pretty common and has this mix.

Although there are several extended mixes that have still NEVER been available on CD from Prince's catalog, here's a few of the big ones that would've been nice to see on this release:

"Sexy Dancer" - extremely hard to find even on vinyl; available only on a UK 12"; this was his first long, extended 12"

"Pop Life" (UK 12" version) - far superior to the US 12" mix

"Mountains" (Extended Version) - excellent 12" version from Parade

"Anotherloverholenyohead" (Extended Version) - another great extended mix from Parade

"Love Or Money" (Extended Version) - this is the fantastic b-side of "Kiss" and it's one of the only b-sides from the WB era that has never made it to CD

"Housequake" (7 Mintutes MoQuake) - the only other extended mix released from Sign O' The Times and an excellent version!

Disappointments regarding disc 1:

Once again, we get the long LP version of "Purple Rain," although the single is simply an early fade. Nevertheless, including the single version could've left room for another track since the LP vers. is 8+ minutes!

"Alphabet St." (LP version) - here's one of the few single versions that has yet to be released on CD, with the exception of the rare promo single; it's also one of the few Prince songs that cannot be made into a 45 version from its LP counterpart.

"Nothing Compares 2 U" and "My Name Is Prince" - although I'm not opposed to hearing album cuts and low charting singles, his catalog contains far better songs that could've been used in place of these two.

aaronk:

Thanks for sharing all of the above details on the
"Ultimate Prince" 2-CD set back in May. I'm reviving this
thread because it appears that after a five-month delay,
this collection will FINALLY be seeing an "official" U.S.
release tomorrow (August 22). I actually ran out to
purchase it locally when it was originally supposed to
come out on March 14. But alas, every store I hit that
day had already pulled it, and at first I couldn't
understand why, since all on-line sources leading up to
that day said it was still coming out, so I knew
something drastic must've happened at the last minute
(i.e., it wasn't simply being "pushed back" a couple
weeks). Well, within a day or two, I heard the news, and
was quite disappointed. In fact, up until this past week,
I, too, had been contemplating shelling out the extra
bucks for a pulled copy through eBay just to have all
those 12" versions you wrote about...

My question is this: Is the version of "Ultimate Prince"
that is scheduled to street tomorrow identical in every
way to the original pressings from March (which you & Pat
both obviously have), or was Rhino forced to make some
changes??? And if there are some differences, what are
they (songs, mixes, lengths, etc.)??? Is the catalog no.
even going to be the same??? Any info appreciated...
:-)

This may be old news by now, but it appears they DID change the track lineup. The new version starts off with "The Purple Medley," and puts the tracks in order after that, mixing the extended mixes and LP/45 versions on both discs. The extended mix of "Let's Work" was substituted for the ext. mix of "Erotic City," and it looks like "Delirious" was removed from the list, too.

Perhaps some of the stores decided not to send back their recalled CDs, and rather than re-ordering, they're putting the old version on the shelf.

I can explain all of this.

There is one and only one version of Ultimate Prince, with the 12" versions isolated on CD2.

The first leaked TRACKLISTING featured Purple Medley as the lead track followed by the rest of the songs mixed in loose chronological order. THIS COMPILATION WAS NEVER PRESSED WITH THIS SEQUENCE. The few copies that made it out in March have the same tracklisting as the one in stores this past week. As a matter of fact, the copies now on store shelves have been sitting in warehouses for the better part of the year. They are all part of the first run.

There are all kinds of inaccuracies on Amazon and the like, and they obviously have posted the initial tracklisting by mistake.

To sum things up: THERE ARE NOT TWO VERSIONS OF ULTIMATE PRINCE.