It appears that even at the time of pressing for the "Parade" album, CDs were being manufactured out of country by Warner Bros. The American releases of "Parade" featured CDs pressed in Japan, Germany and the United States.
Once again, black and white are the main colors appearing on the insert booklet and the cover. The only color appearing occurs on the CD where the song titles are listed in red.
The tracking is the same as the LP and Cassette versions. The German and Japanese pressings are housed in regular CD cases with inserts and packaging printed in the US. But only the German and Japanese versions were encased in longboxes. The US pressings were used for music club releases. This is the Japanese manufactured disc.
PRINCE AND THE REVOLUTION - PARADE
01. Christopher Tracy's Parade 02:11 (Prince, John L. Nelson)
02. New Position 02:21 (Prince)
03. I Wonder U 01:40 (Prince)
04. Under The Cherry Moon 02:57 (Prince, John L. Nelson)
05. Girls & Boys 05:30 (Prince)
06. Life Can Be So Nice 03:12 (Prince)
07. Venus De Milo 01:54 (Prince)
08. Mountains 03:58 (Prince, Wendy Melvoin, Lisa Coleman)
09. Do U Lie? 02:43 (Prince)
10. Kiss 03:38 (Prince)
11. Anotherloverholenyohead 03:58 (Prince)
12. Sometimes It Snows In April 06:50 (Prince, Wendy Melvoin, Lisa Coleman)
Ok, this one is a little weird. Normally, when you have a music club edition of a cassette, it's manufactured on a white cassette rather than the clear cassette with the black insert. However, this is the normal commercial version of "Parade" except manufactured with the white cassette.
It shares the same serial number and identical insert as the clear cassette release and there are no markings to identify it as different from the more common version.
PRINCE AND THE REVOLUTION - PARADE
01. Christopher Tracy's Parade 02:11 (Prince, John L. Nelson)
02. New Position 02:21 (Prince)
03. I Wonder U 01:40 (Prince)
04. Under The Cherry Moon 02:57 (Prince, John L. Nelson)
05. Girls & Boys 05:30 (Prince)
06. Life Can Be So Nice 03:12 (Prince)
07. Venus De Milo 01:54 (Prince)
08. Mountains 03:58 (Prince, Wendy Melvoin, Lisa Coleman)
09. Do U Lie? 02:43 (Prince)
10. Kiss 03:38 (Prince)
11. Anotherloverholenyohead 03:58 (Prince)
12. Sometimes It Snows In April 06:50 (Prince, Wendy Melvoin, Lisa Coleman)
The cassette release of "Parade" was the typical kind for Paisley Park during this time period. The clear cassette with the black insert with white lettering. The case was clear and the Paisley Park logo appears on the both sides of the cassette and on the cover insert.
Unlike the CD and LP versions of the album, the cassette shows the photo of Prince right side up. Whereas, on the CD and LP, it's often to the side.
There are multiple versions of the cassette and I hope to discuss them all eventually.
PRINCE AND THE REVOLUTION - PARADE
01. Christopher Tracy's Parade 02:11 (Prince, John L. Nelson)
02. New Position 02:21 (Prince)
03. I Wonder U 01:40 (Prince)
04. Under The Cherry Moon 02:57 (Prince, John L. Nelson)
05. Girls & Boys 05:30 (Prince)
06. Life Can Be So Nice 03:12 (Prince)
07. Venus De Milo 01:54 (Prince)
08. Mountains 03:58 (Prince, Wendy Melvoin, Lisa Coleman)
09. Do U Lie? 02:43 (Prince)
10. Kiss 03:38 (Prince)
11. Anotherloverholenyohead 03:58 (Prince)
12. Sometimes It Snows In April 06:50 (Prince, Wendy Melvoin, Lisa Coleman)
"Parade" was an interesting release with all of it's firsts and lasts. It was the first soundtrack album on the Paisley Park label. It was the last album Prince recorded with the Revolution. It's the second Prince record on the label and the first actually recorded at Paisley Park.
It was released March 31, 1986. It contained music from the motion picture, "Under The Cherry Moon". It also represented a huge shift in style for Prince. But that's not the point of this entry.
The LP appeared as a gatefold. The record itself was radically different from "Around The World In A Day". The A-side label was white with a gray watermark Paisley Park logo filling up almost the entire label space. The B-side label was the same except it was black with the gray watermark. Almost all of the artwork on the US releases associated with this album are black and white coloring. There are some slight variation. Mostly in the colors of fonts. On the front label, the song titles are written in red while album info is written in black, on the back the song titles are written in white and the album info appears in red. The album speed is 33 1/3.
PRINCE AND THE REVOLUTION - PARADE
01. Christopher Tracy's Parade 02:11 (Prince, John L. Nelson)
02. New Position 02:21 (Prince)
03. I Wonder U 01:40 (Prince)
04. Under The Cherry Moon 02:57 (Prince, John L. Nelson)
05. Girls & Boys 05:30 (Prince)
06. Life Can Be So Nice 03:12 (Prince)
07. Venus De Milo 01:54 (Prince)
08. Mountains 03:58 (Prince, Wendy Melvoin, Lisa Coleman)
09. Do U Lie? 02:43 (Prince)
10. Kiss 03:38 (Prince)
11. Anotherloverholenyohead 03:58 (Prince)
12. Sometimes It Snows In April 06:50 (Prince, Wendy Melvoin, Lisa Coleman)
The 12" promo for "Raspberry Beret", like the other singles from this album, is special in that it has its own unique artwork on the picture sleeve. Of course that artwork is limited to a dark red background, pink lettering and some trippy fonts, but it's still quite different from the commercial release and unique to this one 12".
The back of the sleeve is blank. The labels on the actual record are the standard Warner Bros. blanks. They feature a full color version of the logo on top and then more WB logos appearing as watermarks across the face of the label.
The Paisley Park logo appears on the left hand side of the label just above the serial number and the words, "Promotional Copy. Not For Sale." The track repeats on both sides and is the single edit of the song. The record plays at 33 1/3 RPM. Prince is the composer of the track and this promo is limited to the American market. The Paisley Park logo also appears on the front cover of the sleeve.
PRINCE AND THE REVOLUTION - RASPBERRY BERET
01. Raspberry Beret 03:31 (Prince)
02. Raspberry Beret 03:31 (Prince)
The 12" single for "Raspberry Beret" includes extended versions of both songs on the record. Both extended versions are listed as "(New Mix)" on the labels.
The commercial single hosts a paisley motif on the front side and a strange cloudy sky on the second side. Both sides have the Paisley Park logo and that's also on the cover sleeve.
Once again, you have a close-up pic of one of the characters from the cover album artwork. The official sku number is 0 7599-20355-0. Prince is the author of both tracks and they are very similar in appearance to their smaller 7" counterparts.
The record plays at a speed of 45 RPM. With the exception of the promo single, I know of no variations to this 12" single release.
PRINCE AND THE REVOLUTION - RASPBERRY BERET
01. Raspberry Beret (New Mix) 07:25 (Prince)
02. She's Always In My Hair (New Mix) 06:48 (Prince)
The promotional 7" vinyl of "Raspberry Beret" has the single version of the song repeating on both sides.
Unlike the commercial single, the promo label uses the generic Warner Bros. label with the wording printed over the top. The Warner Bros. logo appears on the right side of the label in full color and then repeats as a watermark across the face of the label.
The words, "Promotion Not For Sale" appear above the color Warner logo and the Paisley Park logo is on the left side just below the time listing.
This promo single was issued in the commercial sleeve and in a generic Warner Bros. Records sleeve.
Prince is the author of the track and the record shares the same serial number as the commercial single.
PRINCE AND THE REVOLUTION - RASPBERRY BERET
01. Raspberry Beret 03:31 (Prince)
02. Raspberry Beret 03:31 (Prince)
