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Parade Prince and The Revolution album
Warner Bros. Records
albumI honestly don’t think I left my funk roots anywhere along the line.
Parade is Prince’s third and final album co-credited with The Revolution. It was received as a welcome improvement to the previous LP Around The World In A Day, aided by the inclusion of arguably the most recognisable single of the decade, Kiss. Indeed in 2023, the track was ranked by Rolling Stone magazine the best song of the 1980s.
Prince began work on Parade on 15 April 1985 at Sunset Sound Studios in Hollywood, before heading to France that June to scout filming locations for the movie Under The Cherry Moon for which the album was the soundtrack. The recording sessions continued on 8 July at Prince’s rented warehouse at 6953 Washington Avenue in Minneapolis, his new base while he awaited the installation of the studio at his new home on Galpin Blvd. Filming in France commenced in September and once it had wrapped that November, recording for the album continued back at the Minneapolis warehouse and was completed in December.
Parade boasts a theatrical string score, performed by an orchestra of 67 added at Monterey Sound Studios in January 1986, arranged by Clare Fischer. An introduction to Prince in 1984 via his then girlfriend Susannah Melvoin, following his work for The Family LP Prince hired Fischer to create the string sections for Parade. This partnership proved so successful, the pair continued collaborating up until Fischer’s death in 2012. Having not once ever met Fischer in person showed the huge mark of respect from Prince who did not wish to risk influencing Fischer’s output should they meet. Prince afforded Fischer total freedom to create the orchestral arrangements that appear on Parade and all their later collaborations. Throughout his career Fischer earned eleven Grammy nominations, winning three. Fischer also created orchestration for the track Under The Cherry Moon but Prince kept his own stripped down version which appears on the finished album.
Despite Parade being a joint billing of Prince and The Revolution, Prince wrote every song, excepting some music writing contributions from Lisa and Wendy for Mountains and Sometimes It Snows In April. Mountains was a composition Lisa and Wendy laid down at Advision Studios in London in November 1985 while Prince was in France shooting Under The Cherry Moon. Prince put his lyrics to the track on his return to the Washington Avenue warehouse that December. It was in this second recording Miko Weaver, an introduction by Sheila E, debuts on guitar as part of The Revolution. The track appears in the movie’s closing credits and was released as the album’s second single on 7 May 1986; charting at number 23 in the US and 45 in the UK. Prince’s father John Lewis Nelson is given cowriting credit for Under The Cherry Moon but his exact contribution is unknown and whether it was beyond the basic melody. Prince had form crediting his father to songs in order to give him a financial income, such as Computer Blue and The Ladder.
The accessibility of Parade appeared to lay rest the fears that, after his success with Purple Rain, its succeeding album Around The World In A Day suggested Prince had abandoned his funkiness and started his declining popularity in the US. Parade recovered Prince’s commercial draw, as despite Around The World In A Day selling two million copies due to riding in Purple Rain‘s wake, some of the record buying public was left disappointed with its creative direction. Parade was released on 31 March 1986 as Prince’s second album under Paisley Park Records. Despite being more mainstream than its predecessor, Parade sold 1.8 million units in the US (peaking at 3 on the Billboard album chart) and was nearly matched with 1.4 million sales overseas. It certified Platinum by RIAA on 3 June 1986. Elsewhere, Parade entered the top tens in Austria, Germany, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and UK and topped the chart in the Netherlands.
Parade forms the soundtrack for Prince’s second feature movie Under The Cherry Moon that premiered three months after the release of the album. The tracks arc the story of its lead character Christopher Tracy played by Prince in the film. The French voice in the track Girls & Boys belongs to Marie France, Prince’s clothes designer for Under The Cherry Moon as well as Purple Rain movie. Written as a sad lament for the death scene of Christopher Tracy, Sometimes It Snows In April was recorded on 21 April 1985 – the very date of Prince’s death in April 2016. Poignantly, Prince performed the song at the Fox Theatre, Atlanta on 14 April 2016 in what would become his final concert.
The LPs promotional tour was performed throughout the summer of 1986 and was a looser, more stripped-down affair compared to the lavish full scale stage production and punishing schedule for Purple Rain Tour. Because his album sales were lower in the US, Parade’s promotional tour, when it began in America was formed of a tentative series of revue style so-called ‘hit-and-run’ performances announced at short-notice. In contrast Parade Tour, staged throughout Europe and Japan, adopted a conventional touring format where sales of the LP were strongest. It was Prince’s inaugural world tour, giving fans outside the US their first chance to see him promote the Parade album in the flesh. The contrast between the reception of Parade in the US and how it resonated abroad is, as a result, quite stark. Despite the tour’s success, Prince’s frustration with his faltering US audience brought about the end of The Revolution. Creative disagreements between Prince and the band plagued the latter stages of the tour and at its conclusion in Japan that September, he disbanded The Revolution so as to renew his career as a solo artist.
Prince is currently pop’s greatest operator, a wizard, a true star.
Parade produced four supporting singles, each edited for their 7″ versions as well as issued in their original full lengths in the 12″ maxis. The lead single Kiss scored Prince his third US chart topping single, on 19 April 1986 and sat there for two weeks. The supporting video won a Grammy for Best R&B Vocal Performance.
Unhappy with his own demo of Kiss, the track is famously the song Prince originally gave to The Revolution’s former bassist Brown Mark as a parting gift so that his band could record for their self-titled LP Mazarati. Brown mixed this track at Sunset Sound on 27 April 1985. When Prince left them his version as a blues number, Mazarati reworked it with a funkier sound. On hearing it the very next morning, Prince took Kiss back when realising it was far too good to give away. Prince applied a few tweaks to it, overdubbing Casey Terry’s lead vocals with his own and removing the bass part, the remainder of Mazarati’s instrumentation and backing vocals are retained in the final cut. The song was then included into Parade album’s configuration straight away. Prince’s decision to release Kiss as a single was at odds with Warner Bros Records, doubting that it was too minimalistic to be a hit; it missing a bassline. Contrary to Warner’s doubts, Kiss became one of the most significant songs in 80s popular culture. Astonishingly, in same week Kiss topped Billboard’s Hot 100 chart, another Prince-penned track Manic Monday landed the number 2 spot for The Bangles – one of the many hits Prince did let get away.
Parade is widely regarded for its singles and B-sides, topped by the session out-takes Love Or $ and the instrumental Alexa De Paris that were laid down at the Washington Avenue warehouse on 8 July 1985 – both being created in the same day along with Girls & Boys. Alexa De Paris is inspired by ballet dancer Alexa Fiorini, niece of Prince’s manager Steve Fargnoli who he met in Paris during preproduction for the shooting of Under The Cherry Moon. Kiss certified Gold by RIAA on 5 May 1986 and, having retailed 2.5 million physical units worldwide, became also the second highest selling single of Prince’s career. Despite the song’s success, Prince was never entirely happy with the finished version of the track, nor with much of Parade which he later confided lacked inspiration and considered the whole project rushed. UK’s NME magazine viewed Parade differently and named it their best album of 1986. At the AMAs, Kiss was nominated for best R&B song. On the flip side, its funky Love Or $ B-side received the year’s Razzie for Worst Original Song.
Mountains was the album’s second single, backed with Alexa De Paris, it peaked in the US Hot 100 at number 23. The third single Girls & Boys was a UK only A-side, accompanied by Under The Cherry Moon on the back, and issued in the run up to Prince’s inaugural show at London’s Wembley Arena. Limited versions of this single included a folded poster advertising the London concerts. It peaked at number 11. Anotherloverholonyohead followed shortly after the tour’s conclusion and delivered Prince another UK top 40 hit. The single’s US equivalent saw Girls & Boys demoted to B-side to Anotherloverholonyohead which charted in the Hot 100 at a lowly 63. Anotherloverholonyohead is arguably one the album’s stringest tracks yet its chart performance as a single yielded a further demonstration to Prince seeing his appeal shifting from the US to Europe. Despite Prince’s own concerns, Parade is broadly received as the best produced record in his career. Indeed in September 2024, Rolling Stone magazine placed Parade 47th in its list of greatest movie soundtracks of all time.
Cover story
Parade ended up with two covers shortlisted from the photo shoot. Both equally as good. Designing the album’s artwork, Warner graphic artist Laura LiPuma suggested to use an alternative shot from Jeff Katz’s photo session with Prince for the cover. The shot chosen showed Prince holding up his hands in a beckoning pose, but LiPuma’s preference was with Prince pulling up his top. So she came up with the idea to flip the images and join them together, one printed each side of the LP’s gatefold, meeting at Prince’s belly positioned at the point of the fold. With the cover open, the two photos form one seamless picture. Katz would go on to shoot several covers for Prince up to 1996.
Performers
- Vocals/Guitar
- Prince
- Drums
- Bobby Z Girls & Boys, Mountains and Anotherloverholenyohead
- Jonathan Melvoin Do U Lie?
- Kevin "Blondie" Patricks Kiss
- Sheila E Alexa De Paris
- Lead Guitar
- Craig Powell Kiss
- Rhythm Guitar
- Wendy Melvoin Girls & Boys, Mountains, Anotherloverholenyohead, Sometimes It Snows In April and Love Or $
- Miko Weaver Mountains
- Tony Christian Kiss
- Keyboards
- Matt "Dr." Fink Girls & Boys, Mountains and Anotherloverholenyohead
- Lisa Coleman Girls & Boys, Mountains, Anotherloverholenyohead, Sometimes It Snows In April, Love Or $
- Arron Paul Keith Kiss
- Marr Starr Kiss
- Bass Guitar
- Brownmark Girls & Boys, Mountains and Anotherloverholenyohead
- Backing Vocals
- Susannah Melvoin Christopher Tracy’s Parade, Girls & Boys and Anotherloverholenyohead
- Percussion
- Shelia E Life Can Be So Nice and Venus De Milo
- Saxophone
- Eric Leeds Girls & Boys, Mountains, Love Or $ and Kiss [Extended]
- Trumpet
- Matthew Blistan "Atlanta Bliss" Girls & Boys and Mountains
- Orchestration
- Clare Fischer
Data
- Producers
- Prince and The Revolution
- Label
- Paisley Park Records
- Distribution
- Warner Bros. Records
- Cover/Design
- Jeff Katz and Laura LiPuma
- Released
- 40 years ago on 31 March 1986
- Running Time
- 40:59
- US Chart Peak
- 3
- US R&B Peak
- 2
- UK Chart Peak
- 4
- Prince Album
- #8
- Orig. Formats
-
Tracklist
- Christopher Tracy's Parade (2:11)
- New Position (2:21)
- I Wonder U [sung by Wendy Melvoin] (1:40)
- Under The Cherry Moon (2:57) 1
- Girls & Boys [feat. Marie France] (5:30)
- Life Can Be So Nice [feat. Lisa Coleman and Wendy Melvoin] (3:12)
- Venus De Milo (1:54)
- Mountains (3:58) 2
- Do U Lie? (2:43)
- Kiss (3:38)
- Anotherloverholenyohead [feat. Susannah Melvoin] (3:58)
- Sometimes It Snows In April (6:50)
Released as a single
1 Cowritten with John L. Nelson.
2 Cowritten with Wendy Melvoin and Lisa Coleman.
Singles from Parade
Kiss
Paisley Park Records
- Released
- 5 February 1986
- Distribution
- Warner Bros. Records / WEA Records
- US Chart Peak
- 1
- UK Chart Peak
- 6
- Cover/Art
- Jeff Katz & Laura LiPuma
- Format
-
- Kiss [Edit] (3:45)
- Love or $ (3:57)
Also available as a 7" cut-out picture disc.
Kiss
Paisley Park Records
12"/Maxi-Single
- Released
- 5 March 1986
- Distribution
- Warner Bros. Records
- US Chart Peak
- 1
- UK Chart Peak
- No Release
- Cover/Art
- Jeff Katz & Laura LiPuma
- Format
-
- Kiss [Extended Version] [feat. Jill Jones] (7:16)
- Love or $ [Extended Version] (6:49)
Kiss
Paisley Park Records
12"/Maxi-Single
- Released
- 5 March 1986
- Distribution
- WEA Records
- US Chart Peak
- No Release
- UK Chart Peak
- 6
- Cover/Art
- Jeff Katz & Laura LiPuma
- Format
-
- Kiss [Extended Version] [feat. Jill Jones] (7:16)
- Love or $ (3:57)
Mountains
Paisley Park Records
- Released
- 7 May 1986
- Distribution
- Warner Bros. Records / WEA Records
- US Chart Peak
- 23
- UK Chart Peak
- 45
- Cover/Art
- Jeff Katz & Laura LiPuma
- Format
-
- Mountains (3:58)
- Alexa De Paris (3:20)
Mountains
Paisley Park Records
12"/Maxi-Single
- Released
- 21 May 1986
- Distribution
- Warner Bros. Records / WEA Records
- US Chart Peak
- 23
- UK Chart Peak
- 45
- Cover/Art
- Jeff Katz & Laura LiPuma
- Format
-
- Mountains [Extended Version] (9:56)
- Alexa De Paris [Extended Version] (4:54)
Anotherloverholenyohead
Paisley Park Records
- Released
- 2 July 1986
- Distribution
- Warner Bros. Records
- US Chart Peak
- 63
- UK Chart Peak
- No Release
- Cover/Art
- Jeff Katz & Laura LiPuma
- Format
-
- Anotherloverholenyohead [Edit] (3:23)
- Girls & Boys [Edit] [feat. Marie France] (3:27)
Anotherloverholenyohead
Paisley Park Records
12"/Maxi-Single
- Released
- 30 July 1986
- Distribution
- Warner Bros. Records
- US Chart Peak
- 63
- UK Chart Peak
- No Release
- Cover/Art
- Jeff Katz & Laura LiPuma
- Format
-
- Anotherloverholenyohead [Extended Version] (7:52)
- Girls & Boys [feat. Marie France] (5:30)
Girls & Boys
Paisley Park Records
- Released
- 4 August 1986
- Distribution
- WEA Records
- US Chart Peak
- No Release
- UK Chart Peak
- 11
- Cover/Art
- Jeff Katz & Laura LiPuma
- Format
-
- Girls & Boys [Edit] [feat. Marie France] (3:27)
- Under The Cherry Moon (2:57)
Also available as a 7" movie picture disc.
Girls & Boys
Paisley Park Records
12"/Maxi-Single
- Released
- 4 August 1986
- Distribution
- WEA Records
- US Chart Peak
- No Release
- UK Chart Peak
- 11
- Cover/Art
- Jeff Katz & Laura LiPuma
- Format
-
- Girls & Boys [feat. Marie France] (5:30)
- Under The Cherry Moon (2:57)
- Erotic City (Make Love Not War Erotic City Come Alive) [feat. Sheila E] (7:24)
Also available as a limited edition including a folded poster promoting the 12th, 13th and 14th August 1986 tour dates at Wembley Arena.
Girls & Boys
Paisley Park Records
- Released
- 4 August 1986
- Distribution
- WEA Records
- US Chart Peak
- No Release
- UK Chart Peak
- 11
- Cover/Art
- Jeff Katz & Laura LiPuma
- Format
-
- Girls & Boys [Edit] [feat. Marie France] (3:27)
- Under The Cherry Moon (2:57)
- She’s Always In My Hair (3:27)
- 17 Days (The Rain Will Come Down, Then U Will Have 2 Choose. If U Believe Look 2 The Dawn And U Shall Never Lose.) [feat. Brenda Bennet and Jill Jones] (3:54)
Issued as gatefold 2 x 7" set: Disc 1 tracks 1 and 2; disc 2 tracks 3 and 4.
Anotherloverholenyohead
Paisley Park Records
- Released
- 20 October 1986
- Distribution
- WEA Records
- US Chart Peak
- No Release
- UK Chart Peak
- 36
- Cover/Art
- Jeff Katz & Laura LiPuma
- Format
-
- Anotherloverholenyohead [Edit] (3:23)
- I Wanna Be Your Lover [Edit] (2:57)
Anotherloverholenyohead
Paisley Park Records
12"/Maxi-Single
- Released
- 20 October 1986
- Distribution
- WEA Records
- US Chart Peak
- No Release
- UK Chart Peak
- 36
- Cover/Art
- Jeff Katz & Laura LiPuma
- Format
-
- Anotherloverholenyohead [Extended Version] (7:52)
- I Wanna Be Your Lover (5:47)
Supporting tour
Parade Tour
1986
- Hit And Run Tour (USA & Canada)
10 shows from 3 March to 3 August, 1986 - Parade Tour (Europe & Japan)
19 shows from 12 August to 9 September, 1986
Parade review
Parade marks Prince’s foray into artful music. With fame and confidence heightened with the success of Purple Rain and if a little rattled by Around The World In A Day, Prince spread The Revolution’s wings for what was their third and final collaboration together. But here is an admission for you, your reviewer does not actually love Kiss and although it is the most well known track on the LP it is, thankfully, not its best. Staying on topic, even Prince conceded he had not enough material for Parade – feeling that the project was did not have enough time to grow, under prepared and lacking clout. If there was ever a candidate for re-recording it Prince would have loved to get a second chance with Parade again. But don’t think Parade is a lesser album. Prince’s wont for perfectionism aside, this is beyond doubt his best production. It launches with the sweeping overture Christopher Tracy’s Parade to then slide effortlessly into New Position, after which slows down with the brooding I Wonder U and Under The Cherry Moon. Its genre bending content confounded retailers where to categorise it.
Parade is packed with artful storytelling, rising to the point of masterful with the oft undervalued Girls & Boys and Do U Lie? These then lead into the best tracks on the album: Life Can Be So Nice and the sweeping Mountains. But it is the longest title Anotherloverholonyohead that names the standout track, its chorus is drawer and the best cure to writers block anyone can hope for. Of course, Sometimes It Snows In April took on a whole new meaning when Prince died in April 2016, and with it Parade pulls to a hauntingly silent end. Spanning virtually every genre, and from the joyful opener to the tragic close. Let’s again question whether the album is rushed or perfectly crafted? Spoiler alert: it’s the latter.
Parade is rated 5 out of 5 by Goldies Parade.
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