Prince estate announces new album on what would have been his 60th birthday
MINNEAPOLIS -- Thursday marks what would have been Prince's 60th birthday. To commemorate the occasion, Warner Bros. Records announced a new album by the late artist.
The company said Thursday that "Piano & A Microphone 1983" from Prince's storied vault will be released on Sept. 21 on CD, vinyl and digital formats.
Warner Bros. says the album features Prince working through nine tracks in a private rehearsal recording at his now-demolished home studio in the Minneapolis suburb of Chanhassen.
Among the songs are "17 Days," Joni Mitchell's "A Case of You," "Strange Relationship," "International Lover" and "Purple Rain," the title song of Prince's 1984 hit movie.
Also included is Prince performing the spiritual "Mary Don't You Weep." Prince's heirs have debated how to manage Prince's estate and unreleased works. Last April, a federal judge blocked a sound engineer from releasing a five-song EP of unpublished music by Prince after the late superstar's estate objected.
George Ian Boxill worked with Prince on five tracks in 2006, and he made at least one song from the recording sessions, "Deliverance," which was made available for online sales. Prince's estate and Paisley Park Enterprises quickly sued to block it.
But in April, Prince's estate did release a long-lost 1984 studio recording of the artist performing his version of "Nothing Compares 2 U."
Prince was 57 when he died of an accidental fentanyl overdose at his Paisley Park recording complex in 2016.
