On June 7, the Prince estate will release Originals, a compilation of familiar songs that the artist put to tape as demos but eventually gave to other musicians to record and release. Included are the original versions of killer Prince songs later recorded by Sheila E., Kenny Rogers, Martika, The Family, Sinead O'Connor, and the Bangles. Gavin Edwards writes in the New York Times:

When Prince saw the Bangles on MTV, he wanted to be some kind of friend to the band, and after making a guest appearance at one of their shows, offered them a song.

“I knew it was an incredible gift,” said the Bangles singer-guitarist Susanna Hoffs. “It was like putting on the slipper in a fairy tale.” She drove across Los Angeles to Sunset Sound studio, nervous and excited for the charming Prince to hand-deliver the song to her. As it turned out, he was busy recording, so she picked up a cassette tape and drove back to the Bangles’ studio.

“We all hovered around a cassette machine,” Hoffs said. They listened to the tape, which had two songs: “Manic Monday” and “Jealous Girl.”

The band unanimously opted for “Manic Monday,” which rewrote Prince’s hit “1999” with lyrics about a woman’s 9-to-5 travails instead of a nuclear apocalypse. (“Jealous Girl” was later sung by Bonnie Raitt but remains unreleased.) They recorded the song, carefully following his blueprint — except they rearranged the bridge. “His bridge had almost a psychedelic, classical feel,” Hoffs said. “Looking back, why didn’t we do it that way?”

Pre-order "Prince: Originals" (Amazon)

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Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett and bassist Robert Trujillo were in Prince's hometown of Minneapolis, Minnesota earlier this week. To pay tribute to The Purple One, they played a metal rendition of his 1984 Purple Rain hit "When Doves Cry." I have to agree with what The Awesomer writes, "The whole thing is pretty cringey, but it’s worth watching for its sheer novelty."

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Last week, just prior to the second anniversary of his death, we heard Prince's original studio cut of "Nothing Compares 2 U", along with previously-unseen rehearsal footage from 1984, all for the first time.

Now, on the heels of all that, Prince's estate has announced that it will release an album of previously-unreleased material on September 28.

Variety reports:

It was a strong first salvo of “mind blowing” material to come from the new caretakers of the artist’s estate, led by entertainment adviser Troy Carter and his company Atom Factory (Carter is also global head of creator services for Spotify). Prince was fiercely protective of his music and kept a large percentage of it — even some of his most popular videos and songs for which he didn’t feel he was properly compensated — locked away in his much-vaunted “Vault.” In the year since Carter took charge, the musical archives have been transported to a climate-controlled Iron Mountain facility in Los Angeles, where they’re being archived, restored and in some cases prepared for release.

Learn the details that are being shared in this Variety interview with Carter: Prince Album of Previously Unreleased Material Coming in September (EXCLUSIVE) Read the rest

Inspired by the Purple One himself, this cookbook is the work of Cat Food, a "super small, super busy, super tiny bakery" in South East London. Inside its pages you'll find Prince-ly recipes for Purple Rain ombre cakes, Raspberry Beret tarts, Darling Stikki toffee puddings, Most Beautiful Swirl in the World brownies, and more.

The book is available to preorder now for £9.00 from Belly Kids. It's set to ship in March.

I have to wonder though, as cute as this is, how long it will be before the Prince estate shuts it down?

Purple Rain ombre cake

Little Red Velvette cupcakes

Previously: Prince and his purple piano inspired this new Pantone Color

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Variety is reporting that previously unreleased music by Prince will soon be available:

‘Previously unreleased Prince music is “coming soon,” estate adviser Troy Carter tells Variety, although he declined to specify any further details about the recordings.

“He was a guy who practically lived in a recording studio, and once we started going through [the unreleased material] we really started finding some gems,” Carter, who is also Spotify’s global head of creative services, said earlier this month. “I heard some music the other night that was pretty mind-blowing and we’re getting some stuff mixed right now. We’ve got great projects in the works that I’m excited to talk about.

“So the answer is yes, there will be unreleased Prince music coming soon,” he said, although he declined to say which label might release the recordings.

image via the Prince website Read the rest