New Prince album "Originals" to be released in honor of his birthday
Prince's estate will release a posthumous album featuring previously unreleased tracks, in honor of the music icon's birthday June 7. The album will first stream on Tidal for 14 days and will be released via all digital and streaming partners June 21.
The album, "Originals," will feature 15 songs the singer recorded during his prime. "By the mid-1980s, Prince was dominating the charts with songs that he had either recorded, produced for proteges, or passed along to other artists," Prince's estate tweeted, sharing an image of the track listing.
"The effect was a complete saturation and transformation of the pop music landscape, with Prince both leading and subverting mainstream culture," another tweet read.
"In addition to releasing nine of his most commercially successful full-length albums, he also wrote and recorded endless reels of material for his proteges the Time, Vanity 6, Sheila E., Apollonia 6, Jill Jones, and the Family." In addition to these artists, Prince also passed songs to artists like Bangles and Kenny Rogers, his estate wrote.
The Tidal release date would have been Prince's 61st birthday. The streaming service, which is partially owned by music mogul Jay-Z, tweeted out the track listing as well.
"Originals" will feature songs that Prince record himself, but were released by other artists that he worked with. His version of "Sex Shooter," released by Apollonia 6, "Manic Monday," released by The Bangles, and "Nothing Compares 2 U," released by The Family, will be on the album.
The album will also feature Prince's version of "Noon Rendezvous," recorded by his former girlfriend, Sheila E., and released on her album "The Glamorous Life" in 1984.
Earlier this week, Prince's estate announced that remixes of his 1999 hit "The Greatest Romance Ever Sold," became available on digital services for the first time. They also announced that later this year that "The Beautiful Ones," a memoir by Prince, will be released.
Prince died in 2016 at the age of 57 from an accidental drug overdose. Law enforcement responded to a 911 call at the singer's Paisley Park Studios in Chanhassen, Minnesota, where they found the musician unresponsive in an elevator.
About two years after his death, a Minnesota prosecutor said Prince thought he was taking a common painkiller, but instead ingested a counterfeit pill containing the dangerously powerful drug fentanyl. No charges were filed in the musician's death.
