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Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic Prince album
Arista Records
albumI don’t think it’s an accident that the album is produced by Prince.
Recorded at Paisley Park Studios throughout the latter half of 1998 and into the spring of 1999, Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic was Prince’s album for the turn of Millennium – a detail not lost to him being a year of commercial value due to his iconic 1982 single 1999. Due to that, it is Prince’s most pop centric album in his discography.
Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic was released on 9 November 1999 under Arista Records and two months after the release of The Vault: Old Friends 4 Sale under Warner Bros issuing material from Prince’s legendary vault. Prince thereby involved himself purely with the promotion of Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic. Following his acrimonious departure from Warner in 1996, Prince was resistant to return to a major record label having exited his contract. The arrangement with Arista was struck in April 1999 by Prince’s lawyer Londell McMillan on the proviso the label’s founder and CEO, Clive Davis, allowed Prince to retain ownership of the master recordings and that this agreement expire following the album’s release. Having that year helped Carlos Santana reach the top of Billboard with Supernatural after a lengthy absence from the chart, Davis aimed to replicate the success he achieved with Santana and revive Prince’s career.
Not having found chart success since The Gold Experience in 1995, following Prince’s positive experience with EMI for his first collaboration with a major label since leaving Warner to release Emancipation, which peaked in the US at number 11, in 1998 Prince agreed a deal with BMG – imprint of Arista – to release Newpower Soul (a UK top-ten selling album although failed to reach the US top-20). In 1999 he struck a similar one-album arrangement with Arista to release Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic. While the substance of the terms guaranteed Prince ownership of his master recordings, one-off deals failed to nurture proper investment from the labels and delivered mixed results on the commercial front.
Santana’s Supernatural boasted high-profile collaborations with the likes of Lauryn Hill, CeeLo Green and Eric Clapton, and Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic followed this seemingly proven formula. Although featuring performance contributions from many artists, Prince wrote every song on Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic excepting Sheryl Crow’s Everyday Is A Winding Road – in Prince’s version of the 1997 hit, he is instead joined by Larry Graham despite Crow also appearing on Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic. For his collaborations Prince returned the favour in two occasions: providing vocals for Ani DiFranco‘s Providence (released on her To The Teeth album on 16 November 1999) and co-writing and performing Waiting Room for Gwen Stefani (included with No Doubt’s Rock Steady on 11 December 2001). The inclusion of big name collaborations with the likes of Gwen Stefani and Sheryl Crow, who were in the peak of their careers by 1999, geared Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic as the grand relaunch of Prince to a wider audience in response to R&B which was enjoying huge popularity at that time.
Four of the five collaborating artists appearing on Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic recorded their contributions at Paisley Park: Chuck D’s raps on Undisputed; Gwen Stefani’s co-lead vocals for So Far, So Pleased; as does Sheryl Crow for Baby Knows; and Ani DeFranco performing acoustic guitar in Eye Love U, But Eye Don’t Trust U Anymore. Eve of Ruff Ryders recorded her raps for Hot Wit U at Electric Lady Studios in New York in September 1999 during the album’s final mixing. Reaction to this choice of collaborations was mixed, nonetheless. DiFranco was an underground artist, and Chuck D and Eve were no big hitters on the hip hop scene at the time either.
Another challenge Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic faced was its one and only promotional single The Greatest Romance Ever Sold. While the chosen supporting single did not feature any of the album’s collaborators, it was aimed at the R&B audience and was accompanied with several remix versions produced by The Neptunes (Chad Hugo and Pharrell Williams) and Jason Nevins. Fending off stiff competition from the likes of TLC who were in the peak of their success, The Greatest Romance Ever Sold landed awkwardly in the charts and peaked at number 63 in the US and 65 in the UK. Also significantly, Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic was written at the time Prince’s marriage with Mayte was approaching its end, therefore the sentiment of grim finality fed through to several of the tracks: Tangerine, The Sun, The Moon And Stars, Man O’ War and Eye Love U, But Eye Don’t Trust U Anymore.
To aid marketing of the album, the sleeve credited Prince by his birth name as producer – a fact pre-release promotion teased Prince Love Symbol reunited with a past producer to create the album: himself as it turned out. Prince threw promotion at it, begun with his headlining performance at Mill City Music Festival, Minneapolis on 6 September 1999, followed in Europe by a string of profile boosting TV appearances including Top Of The Pops on 19 November and TFI Friday with Chris Evans the day after. That December a special concert was staged at Paisley Park and televised on PPV followed with a DVD retail release titled Rave Un2 The Year 2000 in a multi-format promotion all timed to capitalise on the turning of the new Millennium in which his hit single 1999 was doubtless to become the sound for the occasion. Prince even sported a braided hairdo to boot.
Despite efforts, retailing 500,000 units in the US Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic stalled in Billboard at number 18, and disappointingly failed to chart at all in the UK. Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic was awarded RIAA’s Gold certification on 10 December 1999 but the album’s performance proved particularly hollow to Prince having a set high expectation with the record to rediscover audiences new and old through big name collaborations, radio friendly tracks, to even printing his birth name on the back sleeve as production credit. Prince laid blame at Arista in not giving the album proper promotion. The experience would see him shy away from major labels until 2004.
The configuration of Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic includes three very unconventional segues. The first is 4 seconds of silence dedicated to Miles Davis who died on 28 September 1991. The second segue is a 19-second orchestral introduction for Man O’ War. The final segue is a 43-second commercial of Prince, with slowed down spoken voice, promoting his websites love4oneanother.com and 1800newfunk.com. Prince also pays homage to James Brown with Prettyman – a late inclusion in the album, it is Prince’s first studio collaboration with Brown’s former saxophonist Maceo Parker having met at an Ani DiFranco concert on 3 July 1999. Parker’s cover of The Greatest Romance Ever Sold was released on his solo album Dial M-A-C-E-O in April 2000, and in 2002 Parker joined Prince’s touring lineup the New Power Generation until 2011.
Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic was followed in 2001 with a limited special edition containing remixes and extended versions, independently released under NPG Records entitled Rave In2 The Joy Fantastic. Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic became Prince’s last album released under the name Prince Love Symbol (The Artist Formally Known As Prince) owing to the expiration of his contract with Warner at the close of 1999. Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic did not receive a supporting tour, putting the record behind him Prince instead embarked on a greatest hits tour in 2000 to reinvigorate his past legacy. After a spell to focus on his spiritual heath, it would be two full years until Prince released his follow up LP – this time a less trying to impress, leaner, and closer to grassroots affair.
Cover story
Prince is wearing an all-in-one electric blue leather outfit in this photo, shot by Paisley Park’s in-house art director Steve Parke. Impractically, the single piece blue leather suit did not have any pockets, so when Prince wore it to events he relied on associates to carry things for him. Two covers were produced for Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic and its remix special edition Rave In2 The Joy Fantastic, the only difference other than the title is the direction of Prince’s gaze, which looks left for Rave Un2 and directly at the viewer on Rave In2. On 18 March 2000 the liner notes was acknowledged by the Humane Society for raising awareness of animal cruelty. In them, Prince writes about about the disproportionately high mortality rate of lambs lost during the process of sheering for wool used in the fashion industry. The CD’s fold-out insert pictures Prince dressed in a fake wool jacket to illustrate this point.
2019 Ultimate Rave reissue
The DVD and both editions of Rave Un2/In2 The Joy Fantastic were republished by Sony Legacy Recordings as a triple disc set on 26 April 2019, repackaged as Ultimate Rave. Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic also was issued individually and for the first time in vinyl format, that same day. This caused the album to re-enter the Billboard chart, reaching number 69.
Rave Unto The Joy Fantastic (1989)
The title Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic harks back to a mention in Prince’s 1989 B-side track 200 Balloons. He was dating British model Anna Garcia at that time who he met in London during the Parade Tour and stage named her Anna Fantastic. The title track to his then unreleased project Rave Unto The Joy Fantastic stems from this relationship, as do other songs of the period that she inspired, notably Anna Stesia, Lemon Crush (Anna’s then favourite drink) and Pink Cashmere. The project was begun during the Lovesexy Tour in 1988 and was intended for release in 1989 but abandoned when Prince was approached to work on the soundtrack Batman. Three of the project’s tracks were released in 1990 when reconfigured on to Graffiti Bridge. In 1999, Prince reworked the title track, when renamed Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic.
Performers
- Vocals / all Instr
- Prince Love Symbol
- Guitar
- Mike Scott The Greatest Romance Ever Sold
- Acoustic Guitar
- Ani DiFranco Eye Love U, But Eye Don't Trust U Anymore
- Drums
- Michael B Baby Knows
- Bass Guitar
- Rhonda Smith Tangerine and So Far, So Pleased
- Programming
- Kirk Johnson Undesputed, Tangerine, So Far, So Pleased, Man O' War and Silly Game
- Harmonica
- Sheryl Crow Baby Knows
- Scratches
- Brother Jules Undisputed, Strange But True and Prettyman
- Saxophone
- Maceo Parker Prettyman
- Kenni Holmen Hot Wit U and Man O' War
- Trombone
- Michael B. Nelson Hot Wit U and Man O' War
- Trumpet
- Dave Jensen Hot Wit U and Man O' War
- Steve Strand Hot Wit U and Man O' War
- Baritone sax
- Kathy Jensen Hot Wit U and Man O' War
- Backing vocals
- Marva King So Far, So Pleased
- Kip Blackshire Undisputed and Everyday Is A Winding Road
- DuJuan Blackshire Everyday Is A Winding Road
- Johnnie Blackshire Everyday Is A Winding Road
- Orchestration
- Clare Fischer The Sun, The Moon And Stars, Man O' War and Silly Game
Data
- Producer
- Prince
- Label
- NPG Records
- Distribution
- Arista Records
- Cover/Design
- Steve Parke
- Released
- 26 years ago on 9 November 1999
- Reissued
- 26 April 2019 as Ultimate Rave
- Running Time
- 69:52
- US Chart Peak
- 18
- US R&B Peak
- 8
- UK Chart Peak
- Did not chart
- Prince Album
- #23
- Orig. Formats
-
Tracklist
- Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic (4:18)
- Undisputed [rap Chuck D] (4:19)
- The Greatest Romance Ever Sold (5:29)
- Segue (0:04) 1
- Hot Wit U [rap Eve] (5:11)
- Tangerine (1:30)
- So Far, So Pleased [duet with Gwen Stefani] (3:23)
- The Sun, The Moon, And Stars (5:15)
- Everyday Is A Winding Road [feat. Larry Graham] (6:12) 2
- Segue (0:19)
- Man O' War (5:14)
- Baby Knows [feat. Sheryl Crow] (3:18)
- Eye Love You, But Eye Don't Trust U Any More [feat. Ani DiFranco] (3:33)
- Silly Game (3:29)
- Strange But True (4:12)
- Wherever U Go, Whatever U Do (8:51)
- Segue (0:44) 3
- Prettyman [feat. Maceo Parker] (4:25) 3
Released as a single
1 4-second silence in dedicatation to Miles Davis (1926-1991).
2 Written by Sheryl Crow, Jeff Trott and Brian McLeod, 1996.
3 Hidden track.
Singles from Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic
The Greatest Romance Ever Sold
NPG Records
- Released
- 5 October 1999
- Distribution
- Arista Records
- US Chart Peak
- 63
- UK Chart Peak
- No release
- Cover/Art
- Steve Parke
- Formats
-
- The Greatest Romance Ever Sold [Radio Edit] (4:26)
- The Greatest Romance Ever Sold [Adam & Eve Remix] [remix by Prince] (4:30)
The Greatest Romance Ever Sold
NPG Records
- Released
- 15 November 1999
- Distribution
- Arista Records
- US Chart Peak
- No release
- UK Chart Peak
- 65
- Cover/Art
- Steve Parke
- Format
-
- The Greatest Romance Ever Sold [Radio Edit] (4:26)
- The Greatest Romance Ever Sold (5:29)
- The Greatest Romance Ever Sold [Radio Edit with Eve] [rap Eve] (4:32)
- The Greatest Romance Ever Sold [Adam & Eve Remix] [rap Eve] (4:30)
The Greatest Romance Ever Sold: The Remix CD
NPG Records
12"/Maxi-Single
- Released
- 15 November 1999
- Distribution
- Arista Records
- US Chart Peak
- No release
- UK Chart Peak
- Did not chart
- Cover/Art
- Steve Parke
- Format
-
- The Greatest Romance Ever Sold [Radio Edit] (4:33)
- The Greatest Romance Ever Sold [Jason Nevins Remix] (3:54)
- The Greatest Romance Ever Sold [Neptunes Remix Edit] [rap Q-Tip] (3:45)
- The Greatest Romance Ever Sold [Jason Nevins Extended Remix] (6:49)
- The Greatest Romance Ever Sold [Neptunes Extended Remix] [rap Q-Tip] (5:08)
The Greatest Romance Ever Sold EP
NPG Records
12"/Maxi-Single
- Released
- 23 November 1999
- Distribution
- Arista Records
- US Chart Peak
- Did not chart
- UK Chart Peak
- No release
- Cover/Art
- Steve Parke
- Format
-
- The Greatest Romance Ever Sold [Radio Edit] [rap Eve] (4:32)
- The Greatest Romance Ever Sold [Neptunes Remix Edit] [rap Q-Tip] (3:42)
- The Greatest Romance Ever Sold [Adam & Eve Remix] [rap Eve] (4:32)
- The Greatest Romance Ever Sold (5:29)
- The Greatest Romance Ever Sold [Jason Nevins Remix] (3:36)
- The Greatest Romance Ever Sold [Neptunes Extended Remix] [rap Q-Tip] (5:08)
- The Greatest Romance Ever Sold [Jason Nevins Extended Remix] (6:41)
- The Greatest Romance Ever Sold [Original Radio Edit] (4:26)
The Greatest Romance Ever Sold EP
NPG Records
12"/Maxi-Single
- Released
- 23 November 1999
- Distribution
- Arista Records
- US Chart Peak
- Did not chart
- UK Chart Peak
- 163
- Cover/Art
- Steve Parke
- Format
-
- The Greatest Romance Ever Sold [Radio Edit] [rap Eve] (4:32)
- The Greatest Romance Ever Sold [Jason Nevins Romance Beats] (6:03)
- The Greatest Romance Ever Sold [Neptunes Extended Remix] [rap Q-Tip] (5:08)
- The Greatest Romance Ever Sold [Jason Nevins Remix Edit] (3:36)
- The Greatest Romance Ever Sold [Adam & Eve Remix] [rap Eve] (4:30)
- The Greatest Romance Ever Sold (5:29)
- The Greatest Romance Ever Sold [Jason Nevins Extended Mix] (6:41)
- The Greatest Romance Ever Sold [Neptunes Remix Edit] [rap Q-Tip] (3:42)
Two 12" vinyl discs.
Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic review
Every artist knocks out a collaboration album at some point in their career. Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic is Prince’s. Employing the talents of Gwen Stefani, Chuck D, Eve, Sheryl Crow and the arty Ani DiFranco it still remains clear Prince/ Prince Love Symbol was not truly as ease collaborating, reducing their parts to blink-and-you’ll-miss-them cameos for background harmonies. You would be doing well to actually spot Stefani or Crow vocals, dialled right down in the finished product. Prince makes so little use of his friends, which serve more a marketing means to an end than a creative purpose.
In 1999, Prince was gearing up for his big year and due to all this ‘collaboration’ he came up with this highly eclectic LP for the Millennium. Undisputed forms the most, lets say, interesting computerised beat in Prince’s discography but things settle into its stride with the catchy Hot Wit U. His follows Crow’s Everyday Is A Winding Road is a perfect example of the Prince treatment, making the song is tighter, sharper and glossier to the original. Man O’ War is the outstanding track. Prince was unhappy with Arista’s disappointing promotion of Un2). Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic is successful in its production, a skilfully engineered album and the ideal platform to make his commercial comeback. But that didn’t happen. Arista let it sink without trace and Prince’s commercial return misfired. He did forewarn “Heavy rotation never made my world go round, commercialisation of the music is what brought it down” – a case of life imitating art in its truest sense.
Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic is rated 3.5 out of 5 by Goldies Parade.
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