Sign O’ The Times Album SDE: 2020

Overflowing with musical ideas and topical lyrics that sound just as relevant today as they did when they were initially released, Prince’s iconic double album Sign O’ The Times captured the artist in a period of complete reinvention. The final 16-track album included just some of the countless songs Prince recorded in the prolific period of 1985-1987, which saw the dissolution of his band The Revolution, the construction of his innovative recording complex, Paisley Park, and the creation (and ultimate abandonment) of the albums Dream Factory, Camille, and Crystal Ball.

On September 25, 2020, The Prince Estate, in partnership with Warner Records, reissued Sign O’ The Times via all physical, digital and streaming partners, with the classic album remastered for the very first time, and featuring 63 previously unreleased tracks, as well as a previously unreleased 2+ hour video concert performance from Prince’s legendary vault that illuminated his wide-ranging and prolific creativity in this era.

I feel that we’re on the brink of something. It is going to be strict and wild and pretty.”

Prince, 1986

Arriving on the heels of the successful release of the 1999 Super Deluxe Edition in the fall of 2019, the Sign O’ The Times Super Deluxe Edition represented the deepest dive to date into Prince’s vault, and included a total of 92 audio tracks across eight CDs and 13 180-gram vinyl records.

The Super Deluxe Edition brought fans all the audio material that Prince officially released in 1987, as well as 45 previously unissued studio songs recorded between May 1979 and July 1987, and a complete live audio performance from the June 20, 1987 stop on the Sign O’ The Times Tour at Stadium Galgenwaard in Utrecht, The Netherlands.

In addition, both CD and vinyl sets also boasted a brand-new DVD containing the complete, previously unreleased New Year’s Eve benefit concert at Paisley Park on December 31, 1987, which was Prince’s final performance of the Sign O’ The Times Tour stage show and his only on-stage collaboration with jazz legend Miles Davis.

The Super Deluxe Edition set also featured a 120-page hardcover book containing Prince’s previously unseen handwritten lyrics for many of the songs from the era, including the hits “U Got The Look,” “I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man,” and “Hot Thing”; iconic unseen images from the era taken by Prince’s primary photographer in the mid-1980s to early '90s, Jeff Katz; plus images of archive assets including original analog tape reels and studio tracking sheets.

Photo by Jeff Katz

Prince was the first mainstream artist to wax poetic and tell our community’s story, establishing himself as one of the preeminent lyricists for my generation. He literally was a sign of the times.”

Dave Chapelle, Sign O' The Times Super Deluxe Liner Notes

The Super Deluxe Edition book was completed with brand-new liner notes by Prince’s creative peers and friends Dave Chappelle (in conversation with photographer Mathieu Bitton) and Lenny Kravitz; Prince’s longtime engineer Susan Rogers; Daphne A. Brooks, the William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of African American Studies, American Studies and Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies at Yale University; Minneapolis radio host and author Andrea Swensson, host of the Official Prince Podcast; and Prince scholar Duane Tudahl.

Track listing:

CD1 / LP1: Remastered Album (Disc 1)

Sign O’ The Times

Play In The Sunshine

Housequake

The Ballad Of Dorothy Parker

It

Starfish And Coffee

Slow Love

Hot Thing

Forever In My Life

CD2 / LP2: Remastered Album (Disc 2)

U Got The Look

If I Was Your Girlfriend

Strange Relationship

I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man

The Cross

It’s Gonna Be A Beautiful Night

Adore

CD3 / LP3&4: Single Mixes & Edits

Sign O’ The Times (7” single edit)

La, La, La, He, He, Hee (7” single edit)

La, La, La, He, He, Hee (Highly Explosive) (7” single edit)

If I Was Your Girlfriend (7” single edit)

Shockadelica (“If I Was Your Girlfriend” B-side)

Shockadelica (12” long version)

U Got The Look (Long Look) (12” edit)

Housequake (7” edit)

Housequake (7 Minutes MoQuake) (12” edit)

I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man (Fade 7” edit)

Hot Thing (7” single edit)

Hot Thing (Extended Remix)

Hot Thing (Dub Version)

CD4 / LP5&6: Vault, Part 1

I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man (1979 version)

Teacher, Teacher (1985 version)

All My Dreams

Can I Play With U? (featuring Miles Davis)

Wonderful Day (original version)

Strange Relationship (original version)

Visions

The Ballad Of Dorothy Parker (with horns)

Witness 4 The Prosecution (version 1)

Power Fantastic (live in studio)

And That Says What?

Love And Sex

A Place In Heaven (Prince vocal)

Colors

Crystal Ball (7” mix)

Big Tall Wall (version 1)

Nevaeh Ni Ecalp A

In A Large Room With No Light

All tracks previously unreleased

CD5 / LP7&8: Vault, Part 2

Train

It Ain’t Over ‘Til The Fat Lady Sings

Eggplant (Prince vocal)

Everybody Want What They Don’t Got

Blanche

Soul Psychodelicide

The Ball

Adonis And Bathsheba

Forever In My Life (early vocal studio run-through)

Crucial (alternate lyrics)

The Cocoa Boys

When The Dawn Of The Morning Comes

Witness 4 The Prosecution (version 2)

It Be’s Like That Sometimes

All tracks previously unreleased

CD6 / LP9&10: Vault, Part 3

Emotional Pump

Rebirth Of The Flesh (with original outro)

Cosmic Day

Walkin’ In Glory

Wally

I Need A Man

Promise To Be True

Jealous Girl (version 2)

There’s Something I Like About Being Your Fool

Big Tall Wall (version 2)

A Place In Heaven (Lisa vocal)

Wonderful Day (12” mix)

Strange Relationship (1987 Shep Pettibone Club Mix)

All tracks previously unreleased

CD7&8 / LP11-13: Live In Utrecht – June 20, 1987

Intro/Sign O’ The Times

Play In The Sunshine

Little Red Corvette

Housequake

Girls & Boys

Slow Love

Take The “A” Train/Pacemaker/I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man

Hot Thing

Four

If I Was Your Girlfriend

Let’s Go Crazy

When Doves Cry

Purple Rain

1999

Forever In My Life

Kiss

The Cross

It’s Gonna Be A Beautiful Night

All tracks previously unreleased

DVD: Live At Paisley Park – December 31, 1987

Sign O’ The Times

Play In The Sunshine

Little Red Corvette

Erotic City

Housequake

Slow Love

Do Me, Baby

Adore

I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man

What’s Your Name Jam

Let’s Pretend We’re Married

Delirious

Jack U Off

Drum Solo

Twelve

Hot Thing

If I Was Your Girlfriend

Let’s Go Crazy

When Doves Cry

Purple Rain

1999

U Got The Look

It’s Gonna Be A Beautiful Night Medley (featuring Miles Davis)

All tracks previously unrelease